Every time the world woke up to a new reality
A Sputnik moment occurs when a nation suddenly discovers a rival has leapt ahead in a critical technology—shattering assumptions of supremacy and triggering urgent mobilization. The term captures the peculiar vertigo of geopolitical competition: the realization that the future may belong to someone else.
"Now, somehow, in some new way, the sky seemed almost alien. I also remember the profound shock of realizing that it might be possible for another nation to achieve technological superiority over this great country of ours." — Senator Lyndon B. Johnson