Complex sentence: Menaker was a student during a major shift in the United States concerning financial support of scientific research--after 1957, when Russia launched the first satellite, "Sputnik 1" during the Cold War, the U.S. allocated an unprecedented amount of funding into science.
Split into simpler sentences: Menaker was a student during a major shift in the United States concerning financial support of scientific research. After 1957, when Russia launched the first satellite, "Sputnik 1" during the Cold War, the U.S. allocated an unprecedented amount of funding into science.