On October 4, 1957, Americans were stunned by the news that for the first time, an artificial satellite had been put into orbit around the earth—not by the United States, which had been assumed to be the world's technological leader, but by the Soviet Union. People were dismayed. How could the Soviets have gotten so far ahead of American know-how? And what did it mean for the future, in terms of U.S. military readiness and of the nation's prestige in the eyes of the world? From that day until the landing on the moon in 1969, the two superpowers were engaged in a competition that changed the nature of the Cold War and had a profound effect on America's perception of national identity.

The Impact of Sputnik

The first Soviet satellite was a basketball-sized sphere named Sputnik; the second, which was larger and carried a live dog...