Vanguard made it into orbit in March 1958, just months behind the Soviet satellite Sputnik and the United States' first satellite, Explorer.

The NDEA was influenced by the Soviet launch of the satellite Sputnik on October 4, 1957.

And what does the satellite Sputnik have to do with how the internet started?

Sonny, after seeing the Russian satellite Sputnik, decides to join the American team of rocket engineers called the Army Ballistic Missile Agency when he graduates from school.

WWV's 20 MHz signal was used for a unique purpose in 1958: to track the disintegration of Russian satellite Sputnik I after the craft's onboard electronics failed.

He also wrote about the Soviet satellite Sputnik, which, by accident, he was one of the first Westerners to see.

When the satellite Sputnik orbited Earth in October 1957, Russia pulled ahead in the space race.

They signed a recording contract in 1961, and changed their name to "The Spotnicks", a play on the Russian satellite Sputnik as suggested by their manager, Roland Ferneborg.

At 15, he built for his high school science project the world's first home earth satellite station capable of receiving signals from the Russian satellite Sputnik.

Russians called the first satellite Sputnik, the American President decided to go golfing and just about everyone else considered the event momentous and scary.