The Space Race influenced changes in art, television/movies. Gallery and museum interiors became “ice-white” cubes; like the clean rooms astronauts use before launch. Andy Warhol added “space-age” …show more content…
Satellites launched into space brought about Global Positioning Systems (GPS), satellite televisions, and better weather forecasts. Another technological advancement updated software systems, which resulted in better photo/video imaging, real-time weather visualization, and made data more accessible and usable. Computers during the Space Race filled whole rooms, but because of technological advances since the 1960s, handheld tablets and computers are available today. As a result of the space program’s advancements, many communication and computation capability enhancements resulted. The impact the Space Race had on American technology has echoed down the decades and continues to impact technological developments …show more content…
When the Soviet Union launched Sputnik 1 in 1957, the American public began to question Eisenhower’s presidency. They believed he was not assertive enough with Soviet Union relations. This sparked the political turn to space. To keep his presidential ratings up, Eisenhower created the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA), and the Space Race so America could reinsert itself into a place of military and space superiority. The Space Race influenced military advancements with particular concern for nuclear weapons and threats of wide-ranging espionage between countries. Concerns for war and building tensions continued throughout the entire Space Race. Of particular note was the Cuban missile crisis of 1962, which was a significant threat to the United States. Eisenhower had also created two national security focused space programs that operated simultaneously with NASA’s programs. Led by the U.S. Air Force and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), these programs focused on exploiting the military potential of space; classified until the early 1990s, these programs used orbiting satellites to gather Soviet Union