NASA was created in 1958 in response to the Soviet Union launching Sputnik, the first artificial satellite. NASA incorporated the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, its employees, budget, and facilities. Early NASA launches included Pioneer 1 in 1958, the first from Cape Canaveral, and Pioneer 4 in 1959, which performed the first U.S. lunar flyby. NASA also launched monkeys Able and Baker into suborbital flight in 1959. The creation of NASA advanced U.S. technology and initiated the Space Race between the U.S. and Soviet Union.