Impact on the U.S (Sputnik, Star Wars and Moon Landing)

          Sputnik, The Moon Landing and Star Wars were all contributions into the field of Sciene.  Ever since the start U.S.S.R and U.S. were  in a space race compitition in science and technology to show who is ahead of the other. Sputnik, a Russian satellitle, the first satellitle to orbit the earth on  Oct. of 1957. Sputnik weighed about 184 pounds,traveled at 17,000 miles/hour and continued to orbit unitl Jan. of 1958. In response to this the U.S. became anxious and started hasting the idea of being more knowledgle on science. U.S. felt humiliated  they beleived "if a country cannot put a satellite into orbit it doens't have the kind of rockets that could send a nuclear warhead thousands of miles." U.S created the National Defense Act, this act was passed in result of Sputnik, which promoted the idea of gaining knowlegde in Science, Math and Foreign Language.     --------------->>Sputnik---------->>>

               Moon Landing-------------

        Moon Landing was the result of Sputnik. U.S. could no longer tolerate Russia beating them. U.S. was the first country to have man walk on the moon. This showed Russia that U.S. was clearly ahead in the Space Race. U.S was also the first to have there flag on the moon. U.S hasting led Americans to be mentally advanced in Science and technology. This was followed by the creation of Star Wars (sdi) Strategic defensive Iniative it's intention of the program was to develop anti-ballistic missile system to prevent attacks from other countries. With that U.S.'s foreign policy was not compatible with Soviet Union. Russia was a communist country,  which meant people did not have the right to form their own political parties. They don't have the right of assembly, speech and the press. U.S.  government is elected by free elections, people can form political parties to represent their opinion. We here have the right to freedom and assembly and the press. Since these two forms of gov. are on opposite side conflicts were inevatible. There could be no trading among these two powerful nations.

links- http://history.nasa.gov/ap11ann/FirstLunarLanding/cover.html
         http://history.nasa.gov/sputnik/
         http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blsatellite.htm
         http://www.coldwar.org/articles/80s/SDI-StarWars.asp