we have a good many very talented scientists, but we did not make a major effort in this area for many years. and we're now behind and paying the price of having the soviet union exploit the propaganda advantage of sputnik. >> i have marvin cal, cbs news correspondent in moscow on the phone now. marvin, is there any doubt this happened, the russians put a man in space? >> i'm almost certain the russians did fire a man into outer space. he's 27. it's a great historic scientific feat. >> at that time, we didn't really know whether a human could survive in space. and here, boom, the soviets send this guy into space. and he survived. >> yuri gagarin was something that affected american prowess.