Satellite and sunrise in space.Getty Images When the USSR launched Sputnik, the first orbiting satellite, the US worried it was falling behind. Eisenhower responded by creating a program to help more people afford college — and boost the US. While it was created to further educational equity, the student-loan program now furthers debt. Sputnik was a wake-up call for the US: Americans needed to be smarter.On October 4, 1957, the Soviet Union launched the first Earth-orbiting satellite, Sputnik.