The space race
Sputnik came as a shock to the US and started the space race. NASA was founded, and Kennedy set the goal of landing a man on the Moon before the end of the decade. The computer that guided the Apollo 11 landing had less computing power than a modern calculator.
Slovaks in space
In February 1999 Ivan Bella spent a week on the Mir space station as the first Slovak in space. The first Slovak satellite was the student-built skCUBE, launched in June 2017. Slovak companies and universities are now developing more small satellites and instruments for space missions.
Reusable rockets
In December 2015 SpaceX successfully landed the first stage of a Falcon 9 rocket for the first time. Reuse made putting cargo into orbit cheaper, which in turn made networks such as Starlink possible. The GPS navigation satellites also work in orbit today.