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Few Americans considered the gathering on Friday, October 4th , 1957, at the Soviet Union's Embassy in Washington, DC, to be anything out of the ordinary. It was the appropriate climax of a week-long set of international scientific meetings. It was also, in the cynical Cold War world of international intrigue between the United States and the Soviet Union, an opportunity to gather national security intelligence and engage in petty games of one-upmanship between the rivals. This …

…debate over the type of organization to be created and other plans died a quiet death. The new organization started functioning on October 1st, 1958, less than a year after the launch of Sputnik 1. Its first task was the development of a human space exploration program. NASA has continued to direct the human space exploration initiatives of the United States ever since. In short the space race has begun thanks to Sputnik and the soviet union.