Khrushchev had a visceral sense of the impact of Sputnik on ordinary people, how terrifying and awesome it seemed. The Soviets, he boasted, could do this anytime. They would produce rockets like this by the dozens—“like sausages.” When the Americans finally launched a satellite, he belittled it (although in scientific terms it was considerably more impressive than the Soviets’). The American satellites were small, like oranges, he said.
