Race to Space

In 1957 the Soviet Union launched “Sputnik” an artificial satellite into orbit; this sparked a very sudden desire of competition, between the United States and The Soviet union, to be more technologically advanced than one another. The priority of getting a man into space became first on the list. Where this man could be found? Where to start looking? Test Pilots!, At the time were the best of the best, there was no “Top Gun” these were the men that could get the job done, the only problem is getting them to do this “circus stunt” as Virgil (Guss) Grissom once said. The United Stated Government started working with German scientists and Americas best aeronautical engineers to first, at least, launch a spherical piece of aluminum into orbit, as the soviets just have. In 1958 when the United States launched Explorer I, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) began working with full steam, devoting all time and money to getting a man into space, with the collaboration of the original mercury 7 astronauts.
In 1955 a United States spy plane stumbled across a large site consisting of numerous missiles being constructed along with 3 different launch areas. The immediate thought of President Eisenhower was that the Russians were planning on sending one of those in the direction of the white house, how this could be, and the cold war was technically over. Vice president Lyndon B. Johnson caused panic within the governors and generals; he said “Soon they'll be dropping bombs on us like kids dropping rocks from a freeway overpass.” Something had to be done, an invisible competition began between the soviets and the United States, and the Air force began a program Called VANGUARD scheduled to have a rocket completed for space flight by March 1958. Werner Von Braun who had already been a citizen of the United States since the day the U.S. stumbled across the Russian rockets, was working on the VANGUARD program with his fellow scientists from Germany