August 26, 1957: On August 26, 1957, Moscow revealed its success in testing the first-ever Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM), thus demonstrating that the USSR could strike any point on the planet with a nuclear payload and dramatically changing the nature of security concerns in Cold War politics.
The 1957 breakthrough concerning the development of ICBMs happened not by accident and led to the rise of the worldwide competition for outer space exploration. Thus, the achievement of August 1957 changed the way of conducting warfare forever, making thousands of miles of oceans useless for protecting superpowers. Having seized the opportunity to take advantage of the failure of their opponent, the Soviets officially announced their successful test of the multi-stage rocket that flew an incredible distance and hit its target area accurately. The start of the satellite age : Less than two months later, Moscow launched Sputnik – the first-ever artificial satellite in the world.
After the end of the devastating WWII era, Washington and Moscow engaged in an effort to become the leaders in mastering advanced rocketry technologies. For this purpose, both superpowers were actively stealing technologies from the Nazis, hiring the displaced engineers to develop their military capabilities. The goal: Engineers required a multistage rocket capable of carrying a hefty nuclear payload for thousands of miles with maximum precision. Doubts in the accuracy : While some were doubting the ability of the rocket to fly accurately, the strategic impact of this announcement was obvious. The danger of the bomb : Since the Soviet Union had already tested atomic and hydrogen bombs, coupling them with the long-range delivery systems made it possible to attack American territory located thousands of miles from Russia. As heavy-lift ICBMs and orbital rockets were based on the same technology, the USSR managed to use its experience. The new era of warfare : These two technological innovations were clear proof for the Americans of the leadership of Soviet engineers in aerospace and rocket engineering.
Because it lost control very soon and fell to pieces, the failure of America : Only a month before the test, the USA launched its ICBM, the Atlas, designed to fly 5,000 miles but failed to do so.
