Three test launches in September failed miserably, but by October, the crew believed they were ready to test (Green and Lomask, 41).

However, on October 4, 1957, the Soviet Union shocked the United States and the world by successfully launching Sputnik 1, into orbit around the Earth, becoming the first nation to launch an artificial satellite into orbit, and pushing them to the front of the now active Space Race (Green and Lomask, 22). Sputnik I circled the Earth once every 96 minutes, was 22 inches in diameter, and was made of aluminum alloys.

The reaction in the United States was tumultuous, at best.

Citizens of the United States, once certain American's were superior in all things technological and scientific, now began to doubt the superiority of their educational system, as the Russian technologies advanced beyond American capability (Hayes, 13F). The night of the launch, however, only amateur astronomers seemed...
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