Sputnik was the first satellite successfully launched into orbit around the earth, it was launched by the Russians and lead to the Space Race. This race was an important part of the Cold War. Both countries were researching different methods of getting missiles to their targets quicker and with less warning. Launching the missiles from space was the perfect solution, the missiles could reach their targets with little warning. It was this which fueled the Space Race into the most important aspect of the Cold War.
President Eisenhower was intrigued by the idea of a satellite which could take pictures of enemy countries from space. He wanted to launch a satellite into orbit just to define how far a country air space extents. For the International Geophysical Year (IGY), 1957-1958 both the United States and the Soviet Union were planning on launching a satellite into orbit. There were two main teams that presented their ideas to Eisenhower: the Von Braun team, and the Vanguard team.
The Von Braun team was lead by Wernher Von Braun, a former German scientist, and it consisted of many other German scientists and some American engineers. The group had developed a Redstone Rocket, which had already been tested successfully.
The Vanguard team was a civilian arm of the Navy. Their plans included modifying the top stage of an existing rocket to fit their needs. The team had much less experience than the Von Braun team in building rockets.
The Vanguard team was picked to build and launch a satellite for the United States during IGY. This decision is still controversial today. Some believed that the Vanguard team was picked mainly for political reasons; the whole team was American, instead of being mainly composed of German scientists like the Von Braun team. The Von Braun team was upset and surprised at the decision. They kept researching even after being turned down. Even though they were not allowed to build a satellite the Von Braun team still designed one on paper.
On September 20th of 1956, more than one year before the launch of Sputnik, a modified Red Stone rocket called Jupiter C was successfully launched by the Von Braun team; it had a dummy top stage (no satellite). Had the Von Braun team been picked the United States could have beat the Soviets by one year in the race to get a satellite into orbit. For the next year the Von Braun team kept a modified Red Stone stored and ready to launch.
On October fourth 1957 Sputnik was successfully launched by the Soviet Union. Americans were afraid of what this meant; they had failed in getting a satellite first in orbit. Now that the Soviet Union had sent a satellite into orbit could they possibly launch missiles from space?
On December sixth of 1957 the Vanguard team had finally gotten their rocket and satellite ready for launch. Unfortunately there was a problem during lift off and the rocket exploded, never getting more than a few feet off the ground.
On January 31st of 1958 the Von Braun team successfully launched the satellite, Explorer 1.
The Space Race was most definitely one of the main aspects of the Cold War. It led to the development of several important technologies, and the possibilities of these technologies being used for warfare were nearly endless. Satellites were now a reality and could be used to gather data on other countries, and missiles could now be launched halfway across the world.
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Maxime Goovaerts
