In 1955, the USA and Soviet Union each announce that they seek to launch an artificial satellite. This marks the beginning of the "Space Race", an international competition to achieve dominance over the other nation.
Von Braun and his team launch a Jupiter-C rocket on September 1956 capable of putting a satellite into orbit.
In 1957, The Soviet Union successfully places an artificial satellite, Sputnik1, in low-earth orbit. This causes the United States Government to increase funding in its space program.