The US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has declassified documents analyzing the launch of the first artificial satellite by the Soviet Union. The documents are published on the department's website.
Among the materials were reports and records of the department, which were presented to President Eisenhower on the Soviet space and rocket programs. Many of them provide new data on the initial stage of the Soviet space and ballistic programs.
“Today, on the 60th anniversary of the first satellite launch, the CIA released a collection of previously unpublished documents on the Sputnik program. The collection includes CIA intelligence and analysis of Soviet programs from 1955 to the 1960s. Among them there are 59 documents and 440 pages representing new information for the public,”reads the annotation to the documents.
It is believed that it was the launch of Sputnik 1 on October 4, 1957 that marked the beginning of the space race. The USA accelerated the pace of space development, but with the second satellite they were outstripped by the USSR: on November 3, 1957, the first living creature flew into space on "Sputnik-2" - the dog Laika. The first US satellite entered orbit only in February 1958, a month after Sputnik 1 de-orbited and burned up in the atmosphere.