<P> The Sputnik crisis was a period of public fear and anxiety in Western nations about the perceived technological gap between the United States and Soviet Union caused by the Soviets' launch of Sputnik 1, the world's first artificial satellite . The crisis was a key event in the Cold War that triggered the creation of NASA and the Space Race between the two superpowers . The satellite was launched on October 4, 1957 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome . The term was coined by then US President Dwight D. Eisenhower . </P> <P> The United States was the dominant world power in the early 1950s . Lockheed U-2 spy plane flights over the Soviet Union provided intelligence that the US held the advantage in nuclear capability . However, an education gap was identified when studies conducted between 1955 and 1961 reported that the Soviet Union was training two to three times as many scientists per year as the United States . The launch and orbit of Sputnik 1 suggested that the USSR had made a substantial leap forward in technology, which was interpreted as a serious threat to US national security . This spurred the United States to make substantial federal investments in research and development, education and national security . The Juno I rocket that carried the first US satellite Explorer 1 had been ready to launch in 1956, but that fact was classified and unknown to the public . The Army's PGM - 19 Jupiter from which Juno was derived had been mothballed on the orders of defense secretary Charles Erwin Wilson amid interservice rivalry with the US Air Force's PGM - 17 Thor . </P> <P> The USSR used ICBM technology to launch Sputnik into space . This essentially gave the Soviets two propaganda victories at once (sending the satellite into space and proving the distance capabilities of their missiles). This proved that the Soviets had rockets capable of sending nuclear weapons from Russia to Western Europe and even North America . This was the most immediate threat that the launch of Sputnik 1 posed . The United States, a land with a history of geographical security from European wars, suddenly seemed vulnerable . </P> <P> A contributing factor to the Sputnik Crisis was that the Soviets had not released a photograph of the satellite for five days after the launch . Until this point, its appearance remained a mystery to Americans . Another factor was Sputnik's weight of 184 pounds (83 kg), compared to United States' plans to launch a satellite of 21.5 pounds (9.8 kg). The Soviet claim seemed outrageous to many American officials who doubted its accuracy . US rockets at the time produced 150,000 pounds - force (670,000 N) of thrust and US officials presumed that the Soviet rocket that launched Sputnik into space had to have produced 200,000 pounds - force (890,000 N) of thrust . In fact, the R - 7 rocket that launched Sputnik 1 into space produced almost 1,000,000 pounds - force (4,400,000 N) of thrust . All these factors contributed to the American people's perception that they were greatly behind the Soviets in the development of space technologies . </P>

What did americans fear the soviets would be able to do if they could launch a satellite
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