Sputnik and the dawn of the Space Race

It was the evening of Oct. 4, 1957, and millions of Americans were tuning in their television sets to watch the premiere of "Leave It to Beaver."

Unknown to them, the country's archenemy in the Cold War, the Soviet Union, was carrying out a project that would shock the world and alter the course of history - the launch of the first man-made satellite to orbit Earth.

Sputnik, or "fellow world traveler" in Russian, marked the beginning of not just the Space Age, but the Space Race, an ideological contest of technological one-upmanship that would only end in 1969 when the Americans landed on the moon.

Sputnik stunned Americans and "shook our self-confidence because we had convinced ourselves and the world that our technology, our science and inventions were far superior to the Russians'," said Michael Galgano, a professor of American history at Hofstra University.

The bad news continued. Just a month after Sputnik's launch, the Soviets sent another satellite into space - this one with a dog aboard.

The Americans finally responded on Dec. 6, 1957, when they tried to launch a Navy Vanguard satellite. With news cameras filming, it rose four feet into the air, then collapsed into a ball of flames. Newspapers dubbed it "Flopnik," "Oopsnik" and "Kaputnik."

The United States finally successfully launched a satellite on Jan. 31, 1958: the Explorer I. An animal was sent up three years later, when the world's first "chimponaut" - a chimpanzee named Ham - took a 16-minute flight into space aboard a Project Mercury capsule.

The Soviets' initial advantage in the Space Race led many Americans to believe a "missile gap" had developed between the two nations. At a time when they were developing missiles capable of striking each other, the Soviets' successes conjured images of nuclear weapons rocketing into the heart of America.

Outgoing Republican President Dwight Eisenhower downplayed the fears, but Democrats capitalized on them. It helped elect John F. Kennedy president in November 1960.

The Soviets' advantage also caused many Americans to doubt the quality of their public schools. Politicians pumped money into math and science programs. By May 1961, Kennedy declared his grand vision of landing a man on the moon by the end of the decade.

But the United States was still playing catch-up with the Soviets. Yuri Gagarin became the first human in space and the first to orbit the Earth, in April 1961. He was followed a month later by Mercury 7 astronaut Alan Shepard, although he failed to orbit the Earth.

That was achieved by John Glenn on Feb. 20, 1962, as he circled the Earth three times in a Friendship 7 Mercury spacecraft and became an instant American hero. A year later, the Gemini missions began, involving longer space flights. From 1965 to 1966, Project Gemini achieved 10 manned space flights, giving the United States the lead in the Space Race.

The competition culminated with the Apollo missions starting in 1968, and Neil Armstrong's historic walk on the moon on July 20, 1969. That Apollo 11 mission essentially ended the race.

It was also a moment of great pride that "almost unified the world," Galgano said, all the more powerful because it took place amid difficult events that had strained America's self-confidence: the Vietnam War, assassinations, race riots.

By 1972, 12 Americans had walked on the moon. No one has been back since.

Three years later, the Space Race gave way to a new era of cooperation when an Apollo spacecraft linked up with a Soviet Soyuz space capsule in Earth's orbit. The crews from both nations shook hands on live television.