Home Page          History of Satellites         Types of Satellites        How Satellites Work

  The Cold War

        What's New in Satellites?            Process Paper      Annotated Bibliography

 

    The Cold War: How Sputnik upset the global balance and

changed global communications forever

Today, more than 200,000 artificial satellites orbit the Earth, providing telephone, television, weather, navigation, scientific and other data to the planet.


Satellites have enabled man to watch history unfold on live television, communicate by phone with people in distant locations, warn homeowners of approaching hurricanes and tornadoes, spot the buildup of weapons in foreign countries, and see deep into the Universe.

Communications satellites have helped make the world a smaller place, but did you know that the satellite age was born from a lack of communication?


In my research on the topic, I have learned that if not for the Cold War that existed between the United States and the Soviet Union from the 1950s to the 1980s, satellite technology might never have been developed, or at least it may have been delayed for decades. 

 

                                                                  Satellites and the Cold War:

 
 After World War II, the Soviet Union and the United States emerged as the world's two great superpowers. The Soviets wanted to spread Communism worldwide and the U.S. wanted to spread democracy, so in the 1950s, a standoff known as the Cold War began.

 

  

Cuban leader Fidel Castro and Soviet leader Nikita Kruschev in 1960.

 

 

Associated Press photo courtesy of www.casamalahato.com.

 
 

 

 

The launch                                                        of Sputnik.

photo courtesy of www.spacetoday.org.

 

The U.S. and Soviets spied on each other, supplied troops for wars in countries where Communism was spreading, and raced to see who could develop better missiles and bombs.

The U.S. thought it had the upper hand until Oct. 4, 1957, when the Soviets launched Sputnik.

 
In the late 1940s, the U.S. had hired Nazi rocket scientist Wernher von Braun to develop the U.S. missile program, but American missiles weren't strong enough to carry anything into space. The Soviets' rocket genius was Sergei Korolev, a Ukraine scientist whose work was kept secret for years.

 

  

 

   

Sergei Korolev               Wernher von Braun     

photos courtesy of www.spacechild.gsfc.nasa.gov, www.machinedesign.com.

    

 

 

 

 

 

Dwight D. Eisenhower                 John F. Kennedy    

photos courtesy of www.pku.edu.cn.life, www.alsahafares.net

 The U.S. could not let Sputnik's launch go unchallenged. If the Soviets could show the world its technical superiority, more small countries might ally themselves with the Soviets. So, U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower launched the race for space, which began not only to beat the Russians in rocket and satellite technology, but to win the war against Communism. President John F. Kennedy went one step further, declaring that the U.S. would be the first to reach the Moon (he was right!).

The U.S. quickly developed superior satellites, which were used to spy on the Soviets (and they spied back).

 

In the 1960s-'80s, satellites helped spread global communications. The Soviets tried hard to control information about the outside world, but citizens of the Soviet Republics were able to learn about democracy and freedom through satellite-fed television, telephone and Internet access.

In the late 1980s, the Eastern European Communist countries began to fall one by one, culminating on Nov. 9, 1989, with the fall of the Berlin Wall that separated democratic West Germany and Communist East Germany. In 1991, the Soviet Union broke apart and the Cold War was over.

 		  

 

East and West Germans stand on the Berlin Wall in 1989.  

photo courtesy of www.temple.edu/history/images/Berlin_Wall.jpg