The Space Race

The space race started when the Soviet Union launched Sputnik on October 4, 1957. Sputnik was the very first artificial satellite and the first man-made object in space. This scared and upset many Americans. They worried that if the Soviets could launch a satellite into space, then they could also launch nuclear missiles. One month later, the USSR launched Sputnik II, which was larger than Sputnik I and it carried Laika, the first living being in space. The US saw space as the next frontier to explore and they did not want to lose too much ground to the Soviets, so in response America launched their own satellite, Explorer I, in January 1958, marking their entrance into the race. And in that same year, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), a federal agency dedicated solely to space travel, was created.

The space race is portrayed as a race between countries to control the world rather than a collective effort to explore and expand. At the time of the cold war, it was conceived that a strong space technological advancement period would increase the prestige of the United States. Scientific, technological, industrial

The Space Race was a competition between the Soviet Union and the United States for supremacy in space. From 1955 until 1975, both sides battled it out to be the leader in the competition. Fueled by the Cold War and other causes of the beginning of the race, the Soviet Union and the United States fought for authority in a very public manner through the media. There were many achievements at this time and it led the way for many great things to come afterwards.

What exactly was the Space Race? It was basically, a competition between the U.S. and the Soviet Union for the domination of space flight. At the time of the race, the Cold War was at large. The Cold War was a war between the

During the late 50s and early 60s the United States was falling behind in this race, but it wasn’t over. The next task was to be able to send groups of people into space together on one ship. This initiated the Voskhod and Gemini programs, Voskhod in the Soviet Union and Gemini in the United States. In the Soviets’ case there was not much changed from the Vostok craft except for the fact that they could fit 2 or 3 people on the craft. The Soviet Union only did two manned flights with the Voskhod program and left it; one flight in ’64 and one in ’65. The United States had completely changed from their original Mercury program though. It had a new design and “ the new design retained the conical, nickel-alloy walls and fiberglass ablative heat shield of Mercury, it also made use of new features – such as translations control thrusters to alter orbit, hydrogen/oxygen fuel cells to generate electricity, a radar system to allow rendezvous with other craft, and avionics that could withstand depressurization”(Universe Today). These missions whether one manned or not all helped paved the way to the “final lap” in the race to space. The United States and the Soviet Union each wanted to be the first to put a man on the moon; thus the start of the Soyuz and Apollo programs. For the UNITED States and NASA the Apollo missions started in 1961, but the first flight was in 1967 after they concluded with all the Gemini missions. The first ever Apollo flight ended in tragedy with an electrical fire starting and the capsule was destroyed killing the three people on board of the spacecraft. Many unmanned trials went about until finally the second manned trial by NASA in December 1968 with the Apollo 8 flight. Unlike Apollo 1, Apollo 8 was a huge

The Space Race, occurring between 1957 and 1975, allowed both the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and The United States of America to develop technology and spread their respective communist and capitalist ideologies. The Space Race allowed the two nations to compete for superiority in a non-lethal arena. Unlike other confrontations, the Space Race also gave both parties the platform to prove their superiority to their own nations through frequent propaganda use in the form of film, television, paintings, cartoons, posters, ect. Propaganda allowed both nations to influence people's attitudes, beliefs, and behaviours by injecting their own political ideology.

The cold war served as a catalyst for the Space Race. The United States and the Soviet Union ran neck and neck to launch their way into Earth’s orbit. The launching of Sputnik 1 by the Soviet Union placed them in the lead of the race. No sooner than a decade later, Americans Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed on the moon, making it one of mankind’s greatest accomplishments. The Apollo program (source B) opened up the vault of a billions of dollars investment.

There was 17 Apollo mission only Apollo 11-17 where lunar landing missions. Apollo I was a manned mission to go to low earth orbit and test the new command module. The mission was a failure because there was a fire that started in the module the 3 men died in the fire. Apollo 10 got the closest to the moon in orbit . Apollo 11 was the first to land on the moon the Apollo 11 mission crew Buzz Aldrin, Neil Armstrong, and Michael Collins. Apollo 13 was one of the mission that was supposed to land on the moon but they had oxygen leak and where strain in space for five days. The type of equipment the Apollo program had was once one of the most powerful rockets in the world. The Saturn V rocket was what took the U.S to the moon and back. It is one of most powerful rockets and has one of the largest payloads of 14,000kg. The moon buggy originally called the lunar roving vehicle (LRV) had to be folded very small and light to bring it to the moon. The only Apollo missions to bring the LRV were the last three Apollo missions 15,16,and

The greatest number of advances in exploration and discovery were made during the Space Race (Rabinowitch, 1963). The Space Race supplied vital knowledge about space to curious minds, and allowed Americans to better comprehend the expanse of the area beyond Earth. With new satellites, such as the Transit Satellites, Americans could now receive warnings of hurricanes and storms, as well as view forest fires and icebergs. The Space Race also brought the establishment of NASA in 1958 to oversee the space program and to ensure America won the Space Race (Young, Silcock, & Dunn, 1969). Since then, NASA has made many discoveries, advancing our scientific knowledge, and currently employs about 18,000 Americans. The knowledge that the Space Race provided helped accomplish many historical feats and eventually allowed a man to visit the moon (Cadbury, 2007). The discoveries that were founded during the Space Race resulted in new ideas about galaxies, solar systems, and the universe (Rabinowitch,

During the Cold War between 1947-1991, the Space Race took place between the United States of America and the Soviet Union, the two superpowers of the world. The Cold War was a time of political tension between both nations; the Space Race is just a small segment of the story to be explained of the forty-four year time period. The Space Race was never intentionally made between the two powers, but became a natural stand to show who is the more commanding country. The main reason of the Space Race was to see which country had the most potential in not only spaceflight, but as an overall country. The significance of the Space race was to show dominance over either country by placing a satellite into orbit, sending the first men to space, and

Kennedy in 1961 to accomplish one goal; get a man on the moon. National Aeronautics and Space Administration or NASA, were the people behind these projects and conducted the first mission on January 27, 1967. This was the first unmanned mission and launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida. Sadly, a fire broke out and destroyed the fire rocket while on the testing pad. Even though the mission had many setbacks, NASA continued to push foward to find a way to beat the Russians.

The space race, which took place between 1957 and 1975, was a competition between two rivals, the United

In 1961, the United States of America was embroiled in the Cold War with the Soviet Union. This confrontation was taking place not only on land, sea and air, but in space as well. On May 25th, 1961 recently elected US President John F. Kennedy addressed a joint session of Congress, during which he outlined his now famous Man on the Moon challenge. It was through this ambitious dream that the creation of the National Aeronautical Space Administration (NASA) came about, which President Kennedy challenged to put a man on the moon by the end of the decade. Although he didn't live to see the achievement of his dreams, the United States successfully landed Astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin on the moon on July 20, 1969 and

On July 20, 1969 America finally became first in the protracted space race with the Soviets. On that day for America, Neil Armstrong and Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin of Apollo 11 became the first humans to step foot on the moon. This of course was a massive victory alongside the Soviet Union. “ The first men to land on the moon were launched from the site of KSC (Kennedy Space Center) in 1969, and every human space flight launch in the United States since that time has taken place from the Kennedy Space Center” (Rogier). “Apollo was the NASA program that resulted in American astronauts' making an aggregate of 11 spaceflights a total of 12 astronauts having walked on the moon conducting research there

To begin with, the Space Race began all because of the Soviet Union and they kept pushing on to create and carry out with their objectives, meanwhile the United States was doing nothing. In an article, “United States-Soviet Cooperation during the Cold War” nasa.gov. Erika Vick, May 28, 2008. Web. , it says, “History changed on October 4, 1957, when the Soviet Union successfully launched Sputnik I.” In the late 1950’s they launched Sputnik I, which created the Space Race and it continued into the 1960’s, where the Soviet Union and the United States tried beating each other. If the Soviet Union started it, they should earn a little credit for giving the space science a tremendous advancement. For example, in an article by Global Security website, it says, “When communists were pressing for joint action in 1963, what it had meant was Soviet commitment to the policy of