utnik#. Sputnik was the first man-made object in space. It was launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in the Soviet Republic formerly known as Kazakhstan. Sputnik was launched on an A-1 Rocket, and orbited the Earth every 96.2 minutes at 18,000 mpr for 57 days, before burning up in the Earth's atmosphere upon re-entry. The United States had no idea the U.S.S.R. had the capability to successfully fabricate and launch a rocket of this size or power (Sputnik used a rocket 98 feet high and over 100,000 kilograms of thrust). The United States is on record as knowing nothing of Sputnik's launch until this prototype satellite was already in the sky.
             Although this didn't seems like a big deal, it was, in two respects. First was the actual failure of United Stated espionage system in place to find and deliver information that such a satellite existed, how it was being made, by whom and where, so the United States could keep up with the Cold War's arms race. Secondly was the primary concern that if the Soviets could launch a peaceful satellite into space that meant that the Soviets also had the destructive capability of Inter-Continental Ballistic Missiles (ICBM's). The United States was far from perfecting this technology and was severely at risk if an active war between the two powers should engage. Instead, at this time, the United States was relying entirely on B-52's and related manned bombers. The problem is a manned aircraft of that era took many hours to arrive at a U.S.S.R. target. This time window allows much more defense to be aimed at a bomber, at which point there is a good chance the bomber can be defined and destroyed before reaching any vulnerable target. An Inter-Continental Ballistic Missile can hit a target (in the United States) in about an hour, leaving the U.S. very open to attack and destruction without knowing it was coming. Although this Inter-Continental Ballistic Missiles woul...