Forty years ago this week, the United States lost one of the battles of the Cold War. In a move that left America feeling uneasy, the Soviet Union successfully launched the first man-made satellite. Following a background report by Phil Ponce, the NewsHour's regular historians discuss the significance of the event.

JIM LEHRER: Now, the 40th anniversary of Sputnik and to Phil Ponce.

PHIL PONCE: It was the year Ford Motor Company introduced the Edsel--

SPOKESMAN: If you work hard, you will be treated well.

PHIL PONCE: --the year Bridge on the River Kwai won an Oscar for Best Picture, the year Central High School was integrated in Little Rock. But many Americans remember 1957 as the year the space age started. Before then, space flight was mainly the stuff of dreams. Then on October 4, 1957, the Soviets launched Sputnik. Space exploration ceased to be a thing of dreams only, and with Sputnik came a new chapter in science and world politics. At the time both the Soviets and the Americans were working independently and furiously toward space flight. The launch of Sputnik jolted many American scientists like John Simpson, who was then and still is a nuclear scientist at the University of Chicago.

JOHN SIMPSON, Nuclear Scientist: There certainly was a sense of urgency and a sense to scramble. It was thought that the Soviet technology was behind the U.S. and this was a demonstration to show them--the world--that they weren't. Finally, we had a false sense of superiority, superiority in technology and the way to do things in an organized fashion.

PHIL PONCE: Sputnik, which translates as "fellow traveler," was an aluminum ball-shaped object 23 inches in diameter and weighing 184 pounds, a veritable heavyweight compared to American prototypes which weighed just 20 pounds. Sputnik carried a transmitter and batteries to send signals back to Earth. It orbited the Earth once every 96 minutes for 92 days. The beeping itself stopped after only three weeks once the batteries died. But the beeps had made their point. Sergei Khrushchev, a scientist and son of then-Soviet Premiere Nikita Khrushchev, says Soviet leaders and scientists saw Sputnik as a technological triumph over the United States.

SERGEI KHRUSHCHEV, Scientist: It was official and an official competition between our two countries. The U.S. all the time were the technological example for the Soviet Union. But the Soviet people were surprised at the launch of the--for Sputnik--they're very proud, but they were not shocked like Americans. It was also very pleasant not only to my father and to the political elite there, but the ordinary people, all the reaction of the West and especially the shock in United States that they really accepted this--it was first time in history that United States openly accepted that we're ahead of them.

PHIL PONCE: The race to conquer space was on. Members of Congress called for a fast track for America's space program.

SPOKESMAN: The opportunities provided by space exploration will be very strongly scientific in character.

PHIL PONCE: Many Americans feared Sputnik also meant the Soviets were a credible military threat to the United States. If the Soviets could send Sputnik into space, the reasoning went, they could just as easily land missiles on U.S. soil. America rushed to launch a satellite but the first two efforts failed. This one in December of 1957 happened with a national television audience looking on. Success came on January 31, 1958, with the launching of the satellite Explorer. In an effort to take the lead in space President Dwight Eisenhower called for the establishment of a new government agency--the National Aeronautics and Space Administration or NASA.

PRESIDENT DWIGHT EISENHOWER: I consider our country's satellite program to be well designed and properly scheduled to achieve the scientific purposes for which it was initiated. We are, therefore, carrying the program forward in keeping with our arrangement with the international scientific community.

PHIL PONCE: And Congress passed the National Defense Education Act in 1958, providing for more money for science programs so American children could compete with their Soviet counterparts. The Russians launched nine more Sputnik satellites over the next four years. Six of them carried dogs, the first living beings ever sent into space. In 1961, the Soviets achieved another first. Yuri Gegaren became the first person to orbit the Earth. The United States took the lead on July 20, 1969, when Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walked on the surface of the Moon.

NEIL ARMSTRONG: That's one small step for man--one giant leap for mankind.

PHIL PONCE: The Russians had yet to send cosmonauts to the Moon but they do have the world's only space station, Mir. Though it has suffered technical problems in recent years. Today the United States and the Russians are more partners than competitors in space. American astronauts have become regular tenants on Mir, and both countries are working on a proposed international space station.