After World War II, America and the Soviet Union competed to be the first to reach space. When the Soviets launched Sputnik, the first artificial satellite, the Americans started NASA to lead them into space.
In the years after World War II, the United States and the Soviet Union became locked in a "Space race" to develop the ability to move into space. Both powers were motivated for this move both for the scientific merit and the technology it would develop for intercontinental ballistic missiles. Ironically, America's superior technology in nuclear weapons actually put it behind in the "space race".
This happened because the early rockets in America did not need to carry as large of payload as Russia's did. Because both powers were at first developing rockets to deliver nuclear warheads, and because Russia's warheads were far more bulkier than America's, the Russians were forced to develop larger rockets. When the need for large space carrier vehicles arose, Russia had already done more work on them than America had.
In these years between the first manned missions in space cans World War II, there were many extraordinary developments. One of the most important was the launching of the first manmade satellite, Sputnik.
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