Except that no one in the United States was laughing: the launch of Sputnik rocked the nation like no event since Pearl Harbor. As one account of the early space race put it, "[Sputnik's] two transmitters would fail twenty-three days after launch—but their arrogant beeping would continue to sound in the American memory for years to come. . . . Gone forever in this country was the myth of American superiority in all things technical and scientific."
