The CIA controls flights over the Soviet Union. Congress passes the National Defense Education Act to encourage young people to pursue the fields of math, science and engineering. Pilot Gary Powers is shot down while on a reconnaissance mission in Soviet airspace. Two weeks later, Khrushchev storms out of the Paris Summit, furious that Eisenhower would not apologize. Summit talks between the two countries break down.
Powers is put on trial in the Soviet Union and is sentenced to ten years in a Soviet prison.
As a control panel is being fitted, the engine ignites, killing 189 people. Kennedy blames Eisenhower for the missile gap but soon determines that the missile gap favors the United States. Though behind in the missile race, the Soviets send cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin into space to orbit the earth. List evidence of the impact the space race and arms race had on national pride in both the United States and the Soviet Union.