Sputnik has been credited for helping instigate President John F. Kennedy’s 1961 declaration that America would put a man on the moon by the end of the 1960s — a move designed in part to reestablish U.S. technological superiority.

On Oct. 4, 1957, Sputnik 1 successfully launched and entered Earth’s orbit. Thus, began the space age. The successful launch shocked the world, giving the former Soviet Union the distinction of putting the first human-made object into space.

Q. Which of the following was a direct result of the 1957 launch of Sputnik 1? The United States began a period of technology sharing with the Soviet Union. The U.S. government founded a federal agency dedicated to space exploration.

The Space Race spawned pioneering efforts to launch artificial satellites. It prompted competitive countries to send unmanned space probes to the Moon, Venus and Mars. It also made possible human spaceflight in low Earth orbit and to the Moon.

The Soviet Union rocketed Sputnik into space on Oct. 4, 1957. This was the first artificial satellite any nation sent out of the Earth. It was a coup for Soviet rocket technology, and led some to muse that bombs could be launched just as easily as a satellite.

But a lifespan of a few years is nothing compared to Earth’s oldest satellite: Vanguard 1. As America’s second satellite, it was launched into space on March 17, 1958. And though it only blasted off some six months after the Soviet’s Sputnik satellite, Vanuguard 1 still remains in orbit — more than 60 years later.

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Satellites don’t fall from the sky because they are orbiting Earth. Even when satellites are thousands of miles away, Earth’s gravity still tugs on them. Gravity–combined with the satellite’s momentum from its launch into space–cause the satellite go into orbit above Earth, instead of falling back down to the ground.

Two things can happen to old satellites: For the closer satellites, engineers will use its last bit of fuel to slow it down so it will fall out of orbit and burn up in the atmosphere. Further satellites are instead sent even farther away from Earth. That way, it will fall out of orbit and burn up in the atmosphere.