In October 1957, the Soviet Union (USSR) launched the first satellite ever, triggering events that led to creation of the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) on Feb. 7, 1958.
Although it was well known that both the USSR and the United States were working on satellites for the international scientific collaboration known as the International Geophysical Year (an 18-month year from July 1, 1957 to Dec. 31, 1958 and designed to coincide with a peak phase of the solar cycle), many in the United States never fathomed that the USSR would be the first into space.
Now, somehow, in some way, the sky seemed almost alien, then-Senate Majority Leader Lyndon B. Johnson recalled feeling on that night, adding that he remembered the profound shock of realizing that it might be possible for another nation to achieve technological superiority over this great country of ours.
Ever since its establishment in 1958, ARPA - which later added the D for defense at the front of its name - has been striving to keep that technological superiority in the hands of the United States.
On Nov. 13, 1957, President Dwight D. Eisenhower addressed a wary nation saying, "The world will witness future discoveries even more startling than that of nuclear fission. The question is: Will we be the ones to make them?"
Redefining Possible
Since 1958, DARPA has been an engine of innovation serving national defense and the U.S. warfighter.