Answer:
When the Soviet Union launched Sputnik, the world's first artificial satellite, it began what became known as the Space Race. Shortly after, the U.S. also launched its first satellite, Explorer I, in January 1958. The two nations competed with each other in order to be the first to send a human to the moon. Americans felt the need to compete in order to show that they were more technologically advanced. This increasing competition and tensions between these superpowers was the result of the Cold War, an indirect confrontation between the U.S. and Soviet Union to contain their rival's ideologies.