in the sense that it was a tremendous achievement that had barely been dreamed about just years beforehand. obviously, we saw the launch of sputnik, the first artificial satellite into space, in 1957. so, only four years after, there was a tremendous quick development into launching a satellite to actually launching a human and returning him safely back down to earth. all eyes were now on a world that laid beyond earth. the soviet union and the united states each wanted to show that they could get to the moon first. it became known as the space race. russia had put the first person in space. american prestige was taking a beating. and on the ground, us presidentjohn f kennedy was losing the so—called cuban missile crisis. he had threatened the soviets with nuclear war if they went ahead and built a military base right on america's doorstep.