This episode, we finish our three-part series on Sputnik 1 and the people, politics, and egos that launched the Space Race. Topics covered include:

- The decisions that made Sputnik 1 the perfect propaganda tool and worthless as a scientific instrument
- Khrushchev chopping up the Red Army and purging its top general
- How media and politicians in the West fanned the flames of Sputnik Panic
- How a beeping ball made the Soviet Union into a true superpower