During its early years, NASA put the world’s first weather satellite into orbit, along with the first television satellite (Telstar) and the first navigation satellite (NAVSAT). Meanwhile, engineers at Langley Air Force Base in Virginia were hard at work designing and testing the latest high-tech spacecraft that would hopefully carry the first Americans into space.

–Epic Fails: The Race to Space: Countdown to Liftoff,
Erik Slader and Ben Thompson

Explain how the US government was working to put a person in space.