Sputnik Speech

This essay is based on the first word of the second sentence in the third verse “Sputnik” of the song ‘We Didn’t Start the Fire’ by Billy Joel. “Sputnik” refers to the first artificial satellite that was launched by the Soviet Union. Sputnik relates to the broader themes of the Cold War, American foreign policy as well as Soviet foreign policy which all interrelate. It can be said that Sputnik initiated the “Space Race” as after the satellite was launched by the Soviets, the United States of America did not want to fall behind on the innovations that the Russian 's were leading at the time. Although the Russians led the Americans to fear that the intention of Sputnik and their development into space was a new opportunity to create a new line

Object-D would have been the world’s first space satellite that would take measurements of the upper atmosphere and space environment. However, Object-D took longer than expected to develop because of all its complexities and so the Soviets launched the smaller, Sputnik 1, first in order to stay ahead of the Americans. Object-D was later launched as Sputnik 3 in 1958. Sputnik was silver in colour 58cm in diameter with the weight of only 83kg and was pressurized with nitrogen; it had four radio antennas that followed behind it and two radio transmitters within the sphere. The transmitter was powered by silver-zinc batteries and last for a time period of 22 days before dying out. Sputnik took an estimate of 98 minutes to orbit the earth on its indirect path and after an estimate of three months; the artificial satellite fell into the Earth’s atmosphere and burned up (Garbor, 2007). Sputnik-1 was referred to as “the mouse that roared” for although it could do no more than orbit the earth and broadcast radio blips which did not have much meaning, it was able to shock the world and had a great impact globally, especially in the United States. This is because no one expected the Soviets to achieve it first. Researchers were able to restructure the atmospheric density as the satellite elevated even though Sputnik did not carry scientific instruments.

The U.S launched this in 1958 which was the same year that President Dwight Eisenhower signed a public order, creating the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, abbreviated to and commonly known as NASA, a federal agency dedicated to space exploration. Two national security-related space programs were also created by President Eisenhower. Both these programs would operate along with NASA’s program; the first program was devoted to develop the military potential of space and was lead by the U.S Air Force. The second program made use of orbiting satellites to collect information on their rival, the Soviet Union and all its allies. It was led by the Air Force, the Central Intelligence Agency and a new organization called the National Reconnaissance Office, code-named as ‘Corona’, and which was kept classified until the beginning of the 1990’s (Bracey, 2007). Although the U.S was on par with the Soviets by creating their own satellite, the Soviet space program advanced a step further with the launch of Luna 2 in 1959. Luna 2 was the first space invention to reach the moon and Yuri Gagarin, the Soviet cosmonaut, was the first person to enter space and orbit earth in April 1961. Gagarin travelled in Vostok 1, the capsule-like spacecraft (Eberhart, 1965). However, in order for the U.S to be ahead of the Soviets, engineers from NASA designed