Tensions were rising between the USSR and US and war was approaching. nuclear weapon threats were also present during the time, to combat this the US created a new spy plane called U-2. This plane was used to find out if the USSR was actually creating nuclear weapons.
The U-2 plane would fly over the Soviet Union deep into they're territory and would gather intelligence on what the military could be creating. Even though the plane would fly very high, the missions into Soviet territory were very risky and one of the planes was shot down in 1960 in the U-2 incident which increased tensions between US and USSR.
During the U-2 plane incident the pilot of the aircraft, Francis Powers, was captured by the Soviets and was convicted of espionage with 3 years of imprisonment. He got released though 2 years later during a prisoner exchange with a soviet intelligence officer
Around this time the Soviet Union created the first ever satellite and launched it into space. The satellite was nicknamed "Sputnik" and its purpose was to study the earth and the solar system. This was a surprise to people through since many thought that the US would be the first to create a satellite.
To combat the Sputnik launch by the USSR, The US sent out they're own satellite called the Explorer 1. The main purpose of the Explorer 1 was to detect the amount of radiation in the earths orbit. This satellite was sucessful and helped the US create more spacecraft.
One event relating to aviation during the cold war is the bomber gap. during this event, false intelligence was given to the US stating that the Soviet Union was making bomber planes more efficiently than the US. this caused the US to increase they're rate of production of the bomber planes.