Comparing The Apollo And Soyuz Programs

Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin stepped out of the landing module onto the lunar surface on July 20, 1969 marking the first time in human history man had stepped food on a celestial body other than Earth. This event effectively won a more than 10 year competition of scientific advancement and research for the USA, bringing humans to the heavens and setting many precedents for the Cold War. This was known as the “Space Race” between the United States of America and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, commonly known as the USSR or the Soviet Union. This event reflected both countries situations in three major ways: politically, socially, and economically.

The NASA Space Program is one of the most, if not, the most known space program that is currently active. One of the most successful projects was the “Space Race”. In this essay I will discuss what happened on the political side, the economical side, and the social/public side of this event and race to beat and get ahead of Russia and their launch of Sputnik 1.

The American and Soviet Union space programs were in a race to space during the cold war. This space race reflected many political, social, and economic aspects of the cold war. The fact that both countries were in the middle of a cold war didn’t help.

On July 16, 1969, Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins began their journey towards the moon’s surface in the Apollo 11 operation. By July 19, the men entered the lunar orbit. July 20, Armstrong and Aldrin descended towards the moon on the lunar module, the Eagle, while Collins remained in the command module (“The Space Race”). On this day, Armstrong “became the first man to walk on the moon’s surface; he famously called the moment ‘one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind’” (“The Space Race”). After docking and rejoining Collins, Apollo 11 successfully returned home. Russia was unable to match this feat, as they failed four lunar landing attempts between the years 1969 and 1972 (“The Space Race”). The U.S. had officially won the space race.

The Space Race was an immense rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union beginning in the late 1950s. They fought over supremacy for space flight and technology, each side wanting to show the world their power and their capability to explore the unknown. They both created shuttles and rockets in hopes to prove their own worth, while also using this technology to spy on one another. Each country also needed public support and cooperation to back these projects for future advancements. Many political tensions between Democracy and its antagonistic counterpart, Communism, arose leading to new technological advancements, while the media began to publicize these advances worldwide, and beliefs like nationalism became implemented that would raise the importance of the space race to all.

In doing research on space exploration and specifically the Apollo Missions, I have learned a lot about the purpose and significance behind this exploration. The goals set by NASA for these missions was to “establish technology to meet other national interests in space, achieve preeminence in space for the United States and develop man's capability to work in the lunar environment”. The motivation to get a man to the moon (Apollo 11) had a lot to do with the Cold War with the Soviet Union. President John F. Kennedy gave a speech that was aimed to convince the people that it was time to advance and play our part in the world. Thousands of people worked on this project, but it was really a national effort. Several questions arose as each of the

When Apollo 11 landed on the moon, America surprised the world greatly. While the Soviet Union had sent a man into space before, no man had actually walked on the moon. In the race for space, America and the USSR vied to prove their selves superior by exploring space. Apollo 11’s successful landing placed America

The U.S suffered a major setback when three astronauts died because of the spacecraft catching on fire in a space simulation. The Americans weren't the only ones who had a setback, the Soviets also had a setback when Sergey Korolyov had an unexpected death in January 1966, chief engineer of the Soviet space program. In December 1968 people all over the world saw the Apollo 8 launching, which was the first manned space mission to orbit the moon. Frank Borman, James Lovell Jr., and William Anders were the people who were on the Apollo 8 mission, the main purpose was to orbit around the moon and return back to earth safely. The Apollo 8 mission was a very important part of NASA's accomplishments it also plays a big role in the Apollo 11 mission.

This investigation will explore the question: How did the Space Race impact the Cold War? The years 1957 to 1969 will be the focus of the investigation, to analyze the Space Race during the Cold War, as well as how the USSR and NASA both reacted to it.

In 1965, NASA’s annual budget was $5.2 billion; this money was spent to heat up the Space Race (“Project Apollo”). The Space Race and its competitive nature is best illustrated in this passage from John F. Kennedy’s Address at Rice University on the nation's space effort, “We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too” (“John F. Kennedy”). The launch of the Soviet satellite, Sputnik 1, was the event that began the Space Race (The First 13). It was launched on October 4, 1957 (Taylor, Roberts, and Bullock 2451; “The Space Race”). This metallic sphere created the panic of the Sputnik Crisis and the missile gap (Commager 628; Taylor, Roberts, and Bullock 2451; The First 13). Two products of the Sputnik Crisis were the National Defense Education Act and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (“A Brief;” Apollo to the moon 19-20; The First 25). From that point on, the race was on. Although the Soviet Union had a head start in the Space Race, the United States caught up with and surpassed them because of their advanced education system, the German engineers, technology from the Second World War, and their different types of government and economic systems.

The Apollo 11 mission was a huge accomplishment, not only for the United States, but for the entire future of space exploration. The mission impacted the world as we know it, and opened up a whole new realm for us to explore. Apollo 11 was a massive undertaking many thought would never succeed, but now it could be considered the most memorable space experience of all time. Because of its magnitude, many writers wrote about the mission. The writers of that time wrote about the chance for disaster, the jaw dropping launch, the first steps on the moon, and the controversy that surrounded the first mission to the moon.

space while the Apollo’s problems occurred on the way to the moon far from Earth.

The Space Race was a 20th century competition between two Cold War rivals, the United States of America and the Soviet Union. This competition was held between 1955 until 1972 and enabled these two rivals to advance their ability of spaceflight and their exploration out of the Earth’s reach. The competition covered several ways in taking human life out of Earth’s orbit and to successfully bring them back home in the process. The Space Race brought about several controversial topics relating to how the USSR copied the methods conducted by the United States, how the United States retaliated against the USSR and the man landing was purposely staged or not. These factors contribute to a large extent on how the space race was won. The Space Race

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

Then it came time for the Apollo missions. Eleven manned launches into space, 6 of which landing on the moon, carried man farther than ever before. Apollo 1 was scheduled to be the first in the series. Just 4 days before the launch, there was a problem. During a test flight, a fire broke out inside the sealed capsule from faulty wiring. The fire suffocated the 3 astronauts inside. NASA launched a full investigation (Aldrin 3). “It exposed deep flaws in our capsules and procedures”, said Gene Kranz, the retired chief flight director at NASA during the Gemini and Apollo missions (When).