The Space Race began during the Cold War between the United States and Soviet Union as both sought to be the dominant world leader. The Soviet Union gained an early advantage by launching Sputnik as the first artificial satellite and sending the first man into space, showing that their education system was superior. In response, President John F. Kennedy committed the United States to landing a man on the moon by the end of the 1960s in order to gain leadership in the new area of space exploration and demonstrate technological superiority over the Soviet Union.