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Encyclopedia > Sputnik crisis
Sputnik 1
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Sputnik 1

The Sputnik crisis was a turn point of the Cold War that began on October 4, 1957 when the Soviet Union launched the Sputnik 1 satellite. The USA had believed itself to be the leader of space technology and thus a leader of missile development. The surprise Sputnik launch and the failure of the first two U.S. launch attempts proved it was not so. After this, the Space Race began, leading up to Project Apollo and the moon landings in 1969, which eventually ended the Sputnik crisis. Sputnik 1 Picture from NASA This image has been released into the public domain by the copyright holder, its copyright has expired, or it is ineligible for copyright. ... Sputnik 1 Picture from NASA This image has been released into the public domain by the copyright holder, its copyright has expired, or it is ineligible for copyright. ... Combatants {{{combatant1}}} {{{combatant2}}} Commanders {{{commander1}}} {{{commander2}}} Strength {{{strength1}}} {{{strength2}}} Casualties {{{casualties1}}} {{{casualties2}}} {{{notes}}} The Cold War was the protracted geostrategic, economic and ideological struggle that emerged after World War II between the global superpowers of the Soviet Union and the United States, supported by their respective and emerging alliance partners. ... October 4 is the 277th day of the year (278th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1957 (MCMLVII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Sputnik 1 (Russian: , Satellite 1) was the first artificial satellite to be put into orbit, on October 4, 1957. ... A missile (CE pronunciation: ; AmE: ) is, in general, a projectile—that is, something thrown or otherwise propelled. ... Project Vanguard was the name of the United States program that was to have launched the first artificial satellite of the Earth. ... Titan II rockets launched 12 U.S. Gemini spacecraft in the 1960s. ... Apollo Program insignia Project Apollo was a series of human spaceflight missions undertaken by the United States of America using the Apollo spacecraft and Saturn launch vehicle, conducted during the years 1961–1972. ... Crust composition Oxygen 43% Silicon 21% Aluminium 10% Calcium 9% Iron 9% Magnesium 5% Titanium 2% Nickel 0. ... 1969 (MCMLXIX) was a common year starting on Wednesday For other uses, see Number 1969. ...


The Sputnik crisis spurred a whole chain of U.S. initiatives, from large to small, many of them initiated by the Department of Defense. The United States Department of Defense, abbreviated DoD or DOD and sometimes called the Defense Department, is a civilian Cabinet organization of the United States government. ...

  • Within 2 days, calculation of the Sputnik Orbit (joint work by UIUC Astronomy Dept. and Digital Computer Lab.)
  • By February 1958, the political and defense communities had recognized the need for a high-level Department of Defense organization to execute R&D projects and created the Advanced Research Projects Agency, which later became the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency or DARPA.
  • On July 29, 1958, President Eisenhower formally brought the U.S. into the Space Race by signing the National Aeronautics and Space Act, creating NASA and later Project Mercury.
  • Education programs initiated to foster a new generation of engineers. One of the more remarkable and remembered things that came out of this was the concept of "New Math".
  • Dramatically increased support for scientific research. For 1959, Congress increased the National Science Foundation appropriation to $134 million, almost $100 million higher than the year before. By 1968, the NSF budget would stand at nearly $500 million.
  • The Polaris missile program.
  • Project management as an area of inquiry and an object of much scrutiny, leading up to the modern concept of project management and standardized project models such as the DoD Program Evaluation and Review Technique, PERT, invented for Polaris.
  • The decision by President Kennedy, who campaigned in 1960 on closing the "missile gap", to deploy 1000 Minuteman missiles, far more ICBMs than the Soviets had at the time.

The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, also known as UIUC and the U of I (the officially preferred abbreviation), is the flagship campus in the University of Illinois system. ... Donald Bruce Gillies (October 15, 1928 - July 17, 1975) was a Canadian mathematician and computer scientist, known for his work in game theory, computer design, and minicomputer programming environments. ... The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is an agency of the United States Department of Defense responsible for the development of new technology for use by the military. ... Titan II rockets launched 12 U.S. Gemini spacecraft in the 1960s. ... NASA logo Listen to this article · (info) This audio file was created from an article revision dated 2005-09-01, and does not reflect subsequent edits to the article. ... Project Mercury was the United States first successful manned spaceflight program. ... Look up engineer in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... New math is a term referring to a brief dramatic change in the way mathematics was taught in American grade schools during the 1960s. ... 1959 (MCMLIX) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The logo of the National Science Foundation The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent United States government agency that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. ... Polaris A-1 on launch pad in Cape Canaveral Polaris A-3 on launch pad in Cape Canaveral The Polaris missile was a submarine-launched, nuclear-tipped ballistic missile (SLBM) built during the Cold War by the United States Navy. ... Project Management is the discipline of defining and achieving targets while optimizing the use of resources (time, money, people, materials, energy, space, etc) over the course of a project (a set of activities of finite duration). ... A project is a temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product or service. ... PERT network chart for a seven-month project with five milestones (10 through 50) and six activities (A through F). ... JFK redirects here. ... 1960 (MCMLX) was a leap year starting on Friday (link will take you to calendar). ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... The LGM-30 Minuteman is a United States nuclear missile, a land-based intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) (the other type is the LG-118A Peacekeeper, which is to be phased out by 2005). ... A Minuteman III missile soars after a test launch. ...

See also

Cold War - Navigate Through History:
Main events (1945-1967) Main events (1968-1991) Specific articles Primary participants Other important figures

1940s: Titan II rockets launched 12 U.S. Gemini spacecraft in the 1960s. ... Sputnik 1 The Sputnik program was a series of unmanned space missions launched by the Soviet Union in the late 1950s to demonstrate the viability of artificial satellites. ... Combatants {{{combatant1}}} {{{combatant2}}} Commanders {{{commander1}}} {{{commander2}}} Strength {{{strength1}}} {{{strength2}}} Casualties {{{casualties1}}} {{{casualties2}}} {{{notes}}} The Cold War was the protracted geostrategic, economic and ideological struggle that emerged after World War II between the global superpowers of the Soviet Union and the United States, supported by their respective and emerging alliance partners. ...

1950s: The Yalta Conference, sometimes called the Crimea Conference and codenamed the Argonaut Conference, was the wartime meeting from February 4 to 11, 1945 between the heads of government of the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union. ... Attlee, Truman, and Stalin at Potsdam The Potsdam Conference was a conference held at Cecilienhof in Potsdam, Germany (near Berlin), from July 17 to August 2, 1945. ... Combatants Chinese Kuomintang Chinese Communist Party Commanders Chiang Kai-shek Mao Zedong Strength 3,600,000 circa June 1948 2,800,000 circa June 1948 Casualties {{{notes}}} The Chinese Civil War (Traditional Chinese: 國共内戰; Simplified Chinese: 国共内战; Hanyu Pinyin: ; literally Nationalist-Communist Civil War) was a conflict in China between the Kuomintang... The Truman Doctrine was part of the U.S. political response to perceived aggression by the Soviet Union in Europe and the Middle East, illustrated through the communist movements in Iran, Turkey and Greece. ... // Introduction An ELAS soldier The Greek Civil War was fought between 1946 and 1949, and was the first example of a post-war Communist insurgency. ... Map of Europe showing the countries that received Marshall Plan aid. ... The Berlin Blockade, one of the major crises of the Cold War, occurred from June 24, 1948 - May 11, 1949 when the Soviet Union blocked Western railroad and street access to West Berlin. ...

1960s: The Korean War, from June 25, 1950 to cease-fire on July 27, 1953 (the war has not ended officially), was a conflict between North Korea and South Korea. ... Hungarians investigate a disabled Soviet tank in Budapest The 1956 Hungarian Revolution, also known as the Hungarian Uprising or simply the Hungarian Revolt, was an anti-Soviet revolt in Hungary lasting from 23 October to 4 November 1956. ... Combatants Israel, France, United Kingdom Egypt Commanders Moshe Dayan (CoS of the IDF) General Sir Charles Keightley (C-in-C), Vice-Admiral Pierre Barjot (Deputy) Gamal Abdel Nasser Strength 45,000 British, 34,000 French, 175,000 Israeli 300,000 Egyptians Casualties 189 Israelis KIA, unknown number WIA, 16 British... Combatants Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam) United States of America South Korea Thailand Australia New Zealand the Philippines Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam) National Liberation Front (Viet Cong) Commanders Strength ~1,200,000 (1968) ~420,000 (1968) Casualties South Vietnamese dead: 1,250,000+ US dead: 58,226 US...

1960s (continued): All people of the world unite, to overthrow American imperialism, to overthrow Soviet revisionism, to overthrow the reactionaries of all nations! (Chinese propaganda poster, 1969) — bold text corresponds to blackened characters The Sino-Soviet split was a major diplomatic conflict between the Soviet Union and the Peoples Republic of... The U-2 Crisis of 1960 occurred when an American U-2 spy plane was shot down over the Soviet Union. ... Guatemala experienced a 36 years civil war which had a profound impact on this Latin American country. ... Combatants Cuban Government Forces Cuban exiles trained by the US Commanders Fidel Castro Grayston Lynch Pepe San Roman Erneido Oliva Strength 51,000 1,500 Casualties 2,200; estimated 114 dead 1,189 captured {{{notes}}} Cuban poster warning before invasion showing a soldier armed with a RPD machine gun. ... U.S.A.F. spy photo of one of the suspected launch sites The Cuban Missile Crisis was a very tense confrontation between the Soviet Union and the United States over the Soviet deployment of nuclear missiles in Cuba. ... Remnant of the Berlin Wall near Potsdamer Platz, June 2003. ...

1970s: People in a café watch Soviet tanks roll past The Prague Spring (Czech: Pražské jaro, Slovak: Pražská jar ) was a period of political liberalization in Czechoslovakia starting January 5, 1968, and running until August 20 of that year when the Soviet Union and its Warsaw Pact allies (except... // SALT I SALT I is the common name for the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks Agreement. ... Détente is French for relaxation. ...

1980s: // SALT I SALT I is the common name for the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks Agreement. ... Map of Angola Following the end of Portuguese colonial rule in April 1974, newly-independent Angola descended into a devasting civil war which became Africas longest running conflict. ... Combatants USSR Democratic Republic of Afghanistan Mujahideen Rebels Commanders General Boris Gromov Gulbuddin Hekmatyar Sibghatullah Mojadeddi Ahmed Shah Massoud Abdul Ali Mazari Strength Casualties The Soviet war in Afghanistan lasted for ten years. ...

1990s: Solidarity (Polish: Solidarność; full name: Independent Self-governing Trade Union Solidarity — Niezależny Samorządny Związek Zawodowy Solidarność) is a Polish trade union federation founded in September 1980 at the Gdańsk Shipyards, and originally led by Lech Wałęsa. ... Glasnost (Russian: гла́сность, ▶(?)) was one of Mikhail Gorbachevs policies introduced to the Soviet Union in 1985. ... Poster showing Mikhail Gorbachev Perestroika ▶ (help· info) (Перестро́йка) is the Russian word (which passed into English) for the economic reforms introduced in June 1987 by the Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. ... Remnant of the Berlin Wall near Potsdamer Platz, June 2003. ... The Velvet Revolution (Czech: samatová revoluce, Slovak: nežná revolúcia) (November 16 - December 29, 1989) refers to a bloodless revolution in Czechoslovakia that saw the overthrow of the communist government there. ... The factual accuracy of this article is disputed. ...

  • Dissolution of the USSR

Other conflicts: // The rise of Gorbachev Although reform in the Soviet Union stalled between 1969–1982, a generational shift gave new momentum for reform. ... // 1946 January 7: Republic of Austria is reconstituted, with its 1937 borders, but divided into four zones of control: American, British, French, and Soviet. ... Europe at the time of the Iron Curtain The Iron Curtain (Eiserner Vorhang in German, Železná opona in Czech, Железный занавес (Zhelezniy zanaves) in Russian, Vasfüggöny in Hungarian, Jernteppet in Norwegian, Å»elazna kurtyna in Polish, Cortina de fier in Romanian, Желязна завеса in Bulgarian , Rautaesirippu in Finnish ) is a Western term referring... The Non-Aligned Movement, or NAM, is an international organization of over 100 states which consider themselves not formally aligned with or against any major power bloc. ... Containment refers to the foreign policy strategy of the United States in the early years of the Cold War. ... See rollback (data management) for the operation that returns a database to some previous state or Wikipedia:Rollback for the specific rollback function of Wikipedia. ... An arms race is a competition between two or more countries for military supremacy. ... US (blue) and USSR/Russian (red) nuclear weapons stockpiles, 1945-2004. ... Nuclear fireball World War Three is the name given to a hypothetical world war that would be fought after World War II. Most usages of the term include the use of weapons of mass destruction such as nuclear weapons. ... Titan II rockets launched 12 U.S. Gemini spacecraft in the 1960s. ... Political cartoon of the era depicting an anarchist attempting to destroy the Statue of Liberty. ... McCarthyism took place during a period of intense suspicion in the United States primarily from 1950 to 1954, when the U.S. government was actively countering American Communist Party subversion, its leadership, and others suspected of being Communists or Communist sympathizers. ... , Comrade V.I.Lenin, July 1920. ... Ostpolitik or Eastern Politics describes the realisation of the Change through Rapprochement principle, verbalised by Egon Bahr in 1963, by the effort of Willy Brandt, Chancellor of West Germany, to normalize relations with Eastern European nations including East Germany. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... The KGB emblem and motto: The sword and the shield KGB (transliteration of КГБ) is the Russian-language acronym for State Security Committee, (Russian: (help· info); Komitet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti). ...

Political leaders: Israel (in blue color) and the Arab League states (in green, Comoros is not shown). ... Image File history File links Flag_of_NATO.svg The flag of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO). ... The NATO flag NATO 2002 Summit in Prague The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, the Atlantic Alliance or the Western Alliance, is an international organisation for collective security established in 1949, in support of the North Atlantic Treaty signed in Washington, D.C., on... Image File history File links Seal of the Warsaw Pact. ... Seal of the Warsaw Pact Distinguish from the Warsaw Convention, which is an agreement among airlines about financial liability. ...


  Results from FactBites:
 
Sputnik program - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (445 words)
Sputnik 2 was launched on November 3, 1957 and carried the first living passenger, a dog named Laika.
Sputnik 5 was launched into orbit on August 19, 1960 with the dogs Belka and Strelka, 40 mice, 2 rats and a variety of plants on-board.
Sputnik 40 (Object Object 24958/97058C) was a 1/3 scale model Amateur Radio AMSAT satellite launched from the MIR space station on 3 November 1997 to commemorate the 40th anniversary of Sputnik 1.
Sputnik crisis - definition of Sputnik crisis in Encyclopedia (314 words)
The Sputnik crisis was a turning point of the Cold War that begun on October 4, 1957 when the Soviet Union launched the Sputnik 1 satellite.
The surprise Sputnik launch and the failure of the first two U.S. launch attempts proved it was not so.
The Sputnik crisis spurred a whole chain of U.S. initiatives, from large to small, many of them initiated by the Department of Defense.
  More results at FactBites »


 

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