The United States found itself in the heat of competition with the Soviets during the Cold War. One large component of this rivalry was focused on the space race. Space exploration was seen as the next step in the United States’ exploration, which made the Soviet’s surprising launch of Sputnik an unpleasant one. Realizing the importance of demonstrating intelligence, the US launched Explorer I and established the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. The Soviets continued their profound intelligence, launching space probes and even orbiting the Earth. For this reason, President John F. Kennedy found it of the utmost importance to land humans on the moon before the end of the 1960s. NASA’s lunar landing program would make this mission a strong possibility. The funding for the space program drastically increased as the Apollo missions were planned—the most well known being Apollo 11.