The Space Race: United Sates And The Soviet Union

The space race is a competition between the United Sates and the Soviet Union, the two Cold War rivals during the 20th century regarding achievements in the field of space exploration. It began in 1955 when both countries announced that they would soon be launching satellites into orbit. The Soviets took the US announcement as a challenge and even established a commission whose goal was to beat the US in putting a satellite into space. The Space Race can trace its origins to Germany, beginning in the 1930s and continuing during World War II when Nazi Germany researched and built operational ballistic missiles. Starting in the early 1930s, during the last stages of the Weimar Republic, German aerospace engineers experimented with liquid-fueled
rockets, with the goal that one day they would be capable of reaching high altitudes and traversing long distances. The head of the German Army's Ballistics and Munitions Branch, Lieutenant Colonel Karl Emil Becker, gathered a small team of engineers that included Walter Dornberger and Leo Zanssen, to figure out how to use rockets as long-range artillery in order to get around the Treaty of Versailles' ban on research and development of long-range cannons. Wernher von Braun, a young engineering prodigy, was recruited by Becker and Dornberger to join their secret army program at Kummersdorf-West in 1932.
Von Braun had dreams about conquering outer space with rockets, and did not initially see the military value in missile technology. The Soviet Union was successful in placing the first satellite into orbit. On October 4th, 1957, they launched Sputnik I into space. This granted them the lead in the race. The Explorer I was successfully placed into orbit by the US four months later. The Soviets basically “won” the race by putting the first man into space. Yuri Gagarin was the first man to orbit the Earth in April 12th, 1961 in the spacecraft Vostok I. The US then launched Alan Shepherd in the Freedom 7 three weeks later, but it took a nearly a year for the first American to orbit the Earth in the Friendship 7 on the 20th of February (Ducksters.com). Before Glenn’s orbit, President John F. Kennedy claimed that the U.S. would land a man on the moon before the end of the decade. The launch of Apollo 8 occurred in December
1968. It would be the first manned space mission to orbit the moon. It was also launched from Merritt Island, Florida. Then on July 16, 1969, the US was the first to put a man on the moon. Apollo 11 was launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida. It was their first lunar landing attempt.
U.S. astronauts Neil Armstrong, Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin and Michael Collins set off on their space mission on the 16th. After landing successfully on July 20, Armstrong became the first man to walk on the moon’s surface where he said the famous words: “one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” (History.com) By landing on the moon, the United States effectively “won” the space race that had begun with Sputnik’s launch in 1957. The Soviets however failed four lunar attempts between 1969 and 1972. During the time period, the American public’s attention was captivated by the space race, and the ongoing situation and completion between the Soviet and U.S. space programs were heavily covered in the national media. Astronauts came to be seen as American heroes, and earth-bound men and women seemed to enjoy living vicariously through them. Soviets, in turn, were pictured as the ultimate villains, with their massive, relentless efforts to surpass America and prove the power of the communist system. The Space Race came to a conclusion in 1975, with the launching of the Apollo-Soyuz project, the first joint US-Soviet space mission. The two powers have collaborated on space exploration ever
since. Though it sometimes fuelled Cold War rivalry and tension, the Space Race also created substantial profits for human society. Space exploration needed rapid improvements and advances in a range of fields, including telecommunications, micro-technology, computer science and solar power. These innovations have been utilized in a host of other applications, including consumer goods. Today, hundreds of man-made satellites orbit the Earth and provide us with fast worldwide communication, television, global positioning systems (GPS) and weather data. Space research has also greatly enhanced our theoretical and practical understanding of astronomy, meteorology, physics and the various earth sciences. (Alphahistory.com) The great prize of the Space Race, however, was a successful manned landing on the Moon, completed by the US in July 1969. Six years later the US and USSR launched their first joint space mission, Apollo-Soyuz, which effectively ended the Space Race.