Society+and+Space+p.5

Society and Space__**.
 * __Jessica

On October 4th, 1957 the Soviet Union launched Sputnik which was successful in orbiting the earth in only 98 minutes. When this happened the United States was stunned and society was shocked in fear of having the Soviet Union gaining too much knowledge so that we would become unable to get ahead of the game.

This honestly changed America in ways that you could not imagine. For example, G. Mennen Williams, the governor of Michigan, wrote a poem about it: "Oh little Sputnik, flying high With made-in-moscow beep, You tell the world it's a Commie sky and Uncle Sam's asleep.

You say on fair way and on rough The Kremlin knows it all, We hope our golfer knows enough To get us on the ball."

When the Soviet Union announced their success, the whole Cold War took a new path and our morals changed drastically so that we could get in advance against the Soviet Union. Like I said, the American society was shocked and doubtful now, they were scared that the United States had become vulnerable since the gain of knowledge the USSR (Soviet Union) had gotten.

While all this was happening Dwight D. Eisenhower was in power for the U.S. He was the commanding general in Europe during World War II, earlier in his life and in 1953 he became the president. Dwight was all about "Modern Republicanism". He later, after about four years, entered the space race, which began before the Sputnik took off successfully.

The social changes that the United States were so reluctant to have gave them a lot of struggle since the new society was just starting. On September 9th, 1957 less than a month before the Sputniks launch the first civil rights legislation since reconstruction occured. We definitely needed a confidence boost since the U.S. technology, values, politics, and military was inadequate.

In addition, this left us with many second thoughts. This changed our attitudes drastically along the states and almost demolished the whole entire market. Fortunately, we have made a huge comeback over the years and now we have learned from our mistakes.

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^This us a Russian exhibit of the Sputnik 3 in 1958. It shows how it would have been operated on the first one.