re: #23 Obdicut

Sputnik, in fact, arguably helped to keep the USSR together. It was a huge victory, a moment of national pride, when Russia had really achieved something momentous.

That’s why we had to beat them in the space race. To confront that display of technological dominance.

True that. Lets not forget that many former Nazi scientists (Operation Paperclip, anybody?) greatly assisted the USA and the USSR with designing the rockets. Neither side can say they they went into space without help from some dubious characters.