What did the Soviet Union do in1957 to cause the us Department of Defense to perform the Advanced Research Projects Agency ARPA and NASA the following year?

Answer 1

Launched the first artificial satellite, Sputnik 1. This was launched on 4th October '57- by modern standards it would be considered a little basic, although it was nonetheless capable of carrying out several space research projects at once, including providing data on the structure of Earth's upper atmosphere, measuring radio signal distribution in the ionosphere, and helping in the detection of meteorites. It also sent back a continuous bipping noise to ground control in the USSR- no mean feat for a little machine that looked like a steel ball with four antenna protruding from one side of it! The Russians were very excited at their success,and justifiably proud- however, the United States Government was seriously alarmed at the development. The USA had no idea that the Soviet Union was technically advanced enough to succesfully carry out a space mission like that, and it caused the Eisenhower administration to have to seriously re-evaluate it's assesment of Soviet technical capabilities. Although Sputnik 1 itself was a harmless little thing and posed no threat in it's own right, the US Government felt that if the Russians were capable of such a project as that, then they may also be capable of other, more elaborate developments that could lead to them eventually dominating space research. Such technologies could have a military application, and lead to the USSR opening up a new dimension to the arms race in outer space. There was alarm, and even some panic, in the White House corridors of power- it was felt that such a scenario must not be allowed to happen, and that the United States must attain parity with the USSR in this area at all costs. This is why the US Defense Dept. set up ARPA and NASA in 1958, to increase the pace of America's own space development programme.