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Class Year

2025

Document Type

Article

Abstract

The launch of the Soviet Satellite SPUTNIK is widely regarded as the start of the Space Race. It thrust the issue of space exploration into the national spotlight and brought about issues that defined the final years of the Eisenhower administration. LIFE Magazine and other American news publications covered the Space Race and the fledgling years of the newly established National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). LIFE Magazine from 1957 to 1961 covered the American reaction to SPUTNIK and served as a primary platform of news coverage about the Space Race. During this time the Eisenhower administration sought to accomplish two goals. The first was to ease panic amongst the American public denouncing the existence of a “Missile Gap” between the U.S. and the Soviet Union and reassure the Americans of their superiority over the Soviet Union. The second goal was to use NASA to prepare the U.S. for an era of space exploration in a transformational age.

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