About this episode
This episode, we finish our three-part series on Sputnik 1 and the people, politics, and egos that launched the Space Race. Topics covered include: - The decisions that made Sputnik 1 the perfect propaganda tool and worthless as a scientific instrument - Khrushchev chopping up the Red Army and purging its top general - How media and politicians in the West fanned the flames of Sputnik Panic - How a beeping ball made the Soviet Union into a true superpower