America was worried that Russia could start bombing them if they wanted. The fear of Russia being the first ones in space was amplified by the Cold War, and many Americans thought that by dominating space, the Russians would be able to launch any kind of attack they felt like at any time on the U.S. from space without any opposition, because the U.S. had no satellites in space. It started the space race, which was a period of time during which the United States rushed to get satellites up into space as well, to close the rift that had emerged between Russian and American space technology. The lanunches shcoked many Americans, who always believed they would be superior when it came down to techonoloy, but Russia defenitly changed their prospective. Congress fastly approved the National Defense Education Act, a 1 billion dollar program to produce more scientist and teachers of science. This act allowed money for loans to enable high schools and collages to continue their education in science. Also congress created the National Aeronauctics and Space Admininstration also known as NASA. NASA was created to cordinate the space- related efforts of American scientist and the military. An American U-2 spy plane is shot down while conducting spis over the Soviet Union. The incident defelcted an important summit meeting between President Dwight D. Eisenhower and Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev that was scheduled for later that month. The CIA assured President Eisenhower that the Soviets did not possess anti-aircraft weapons smart enough to shoot down the high-altitude planes. However on May 1st, U-2 flight piloted by Francis Gary Powers disappeared while on a flight over Russia. The CIA told the president that, even if the plane had been shot down, it was managed to self-destruct and the pilot was instructed