Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) was created with a national sense of urgency in February 1958 amidst one of the most dramatic moments in the history of the Cold War and the already-accelerating pace of technology. In the months preceding the official authorization for the agency's creation, the Soviet Union had launched an Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM), as well as the world's first satellite, Sputnik 1.