<P> The United States had multiple rocket programs divided among the different branches of the American armed services, which meant that each force developed its own ICBM program . The Air Force initiated ICBM research in 1945 with the MX - 774 . However, its funding was cancelled and only three partially successful launches were conducted in 1947 . In 1950, von Braun began testing the Air Force PGM - 11 Redstone rocket family at Cape Canaveral . In 1951, the Air Force began a new ICBM program called MX - 1593, and by 1955 this program was receiving top - priority funding . The MX - 1593 program evolved to become the Atlas - A, with its maiden launch occurring June 11, 1957, becoming the first successful American ICBM . Its upgraded version, the Atlas - D rocket, later served as a nuclear ICBM and as the orbital launch vehicle for Project Mercury and the remote - controlled Agena Target Vehicle used in Project Gemini . </P> <P> With the Cold War as an engine for change in the ideological competition between the United States and the Soviet Union, a coherent space policy began to take shape in the United States during the late 1950s . Korolev took inspiration from the competition as well, achieving many firsts to counter the possibility that the United States might prevail . </P> <P> In 1955, with both the United States and the Soviet Union building ballistic missiles that could be utilized to launch objects into space, the "starting line" was drawn for the Space Race . In separate announcements four days apart, both nations publicly announced that they would launch artificial Earth satellites by 1957 or 1958 . On July 29, 1955, James C. Hagerty, president Dwight D. Eisenhower's press secretary, announced that the United States intended to launch "small Earth circling satellites" between July 1, 1957, and December 31, 1958, as part of their contribution to the International Geophysical Year (IGY). Four days later, at the Sixth Congress of International Astronautical Federation in Copenhagen, scientist Leonid I. Sedov spoke to international reporters at the Soviet embassy, and announced his country's intention to launch a satellite as well, in the "near future". On August 30, 1955, Korolev managed to get the Soviet Academy of Sciences to create a commission whose purpose was to beat the Americans into Earth orbit: this was the de facto start date for the Space Race . The Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union began a policy of treating development of its space program as a classified state secret . </P> <P> Initially, President Eisenhower was worried that a satellite passing above a nation at over 100 kilometers (62 mi), might be construed as violating that nation's sovereign airspace . He was concerned that the Soviet Union would accuse the Americans of an illegal overflight, thereby scoring a propaganda victory at his expense . Eisenhower and his advisors believed that a nation's airspace sovereignty did not extend into outer space, acknowledged as the Kármán line, and he used the 1957--58 International Geophysical Year launches to establish this principle in international law . Eisenhower also feared that he might cause an international incident and be called a "warmonger" if he were to use military missiles as launchers . Therefore, he selected the untried Naval Research Laboratory's Vanguard rocket, which was a research - only booster . This meant that von Braun's team was not allowed to put a satellite into orbit with their Jupiter - C rocket, because of its intended use as a future military vehicle . On September 20, 1956, von Braun and his team did launch a Jupiter - C that was capable of putting a satellite into orbit, but the launch was used only as a suborbital test of nose cone reentry technology . </P>

When did the space race begin cold war