The correct answer to this open question is the following.
The response to the launching of Sputnik by the Soviet Union in 1957 was the following: "the federal government began spending billions of dollars to improve American science and language education."
The space program had to be sped up because, in those years of the Cold War, it was inadmissible for the United States to behind the Soviet Union in the space race. The United States federal government also invested a lot in education and space research.
On October 4, 1957, the Soviet Union launched Sputnik into space. People in American could not believe what their eyes were watching and their ears were listening. United States citizens expressed concerns about the lag of their country in the Space Race.
On April 12, 1961, the Soviet Union did it again. They launched Vistock 1, with Yuri Gagarin into space.