During WWII, experiments with rockets and jet engines advanced at a furious clip, especially in Germany. After the war, German scientists captured by the Americans and Russians became central in their development of Space Flight. In 1957, to the shock of all Americans, the Russians launched Sputnik. The cultural shock launched the Americans on a mad dash to the moon, but once there, the Americans found little or no commercial benefits to space; many decades needed to pass before this could change.