Space Race Research Paper

1634 Words7 Pages
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. The competition enabled these two rivals in advancing their ability of spaceflight and their exploration out of Earth’s reach. The competition conducted of several methods in bringing human life out of Earth’s orbit and to successfully bring them back home. The Space Race is known to be one of the most historical events of the twentieth century and played a significant role in the outcome of the Cold War. The Space Race too features the unique event of bringing mankind to the moon for the first time in history. Back in 1955, the Soviet Union utilized the “starting line”…show more content…
The first signs of a potential space race between the two Cold War rivals, the US and the USSR were back in 1955. NASA was already able to utilise launch objects before declaring the rivalry between them and Russia. Launching these objects into space would ultimately draw a starting line for the space race. NASA then announced that they would launch artificial Earth satellites by 1957 or 1958. Immediately, Russia responding with a declaration that they would also launch a satellite, but before the US would; thus “beating them in a race” for the International Geophysical Year covering from June 1957 to July 1958. As a response to the Soviet Union’s launch of Luna 2, President John F. Kennedy made the bold, public claim that the US would land a man on the moon before the end of the decade. In February 1962, John Glenn, became the first American to orbit Earth and by the end of that year, the foundations of NASA’s lunar landing program dubbed Project Apollo were in place. NASA’s perception in conquering the space race completely changed once they announced that they would land a man on the moon by the end of the 1960s. This then launched the Apollo program, the final program in which the Space Race against the USSR consisted of. At the time of announcement, the program would cost approximately $20 billion dollars.…show more content…
During the late 1950s up towards the early 1960s, the world believed that the USSR would defeat NASA and even NASA believed they would also. By landing on the moon, NASA effectively “won” the space race that had begun with Sputnik’s launch in 1957. For their part, the Soviet Union made four failed attempts to launch a lunar landing craft between 1969 and 1972. The American public’s attention was captivated by the space race and the various developments by the Soviet Union and NASA space programs were heavily covered in the national media. This sparked such controversy that astronauts were deemed as American heroes and the Soviet Union were deemed as the ultimate villains, with their massive relentless efforts to surpass America and prove the power of the communist system. With the conclusion of the space race, the NASA’s interest in the lunar missions waned after the early 1970s. In 1975, the joint Apollo-Soyuz mission sent three U.S. astronauts into space aboard an Apollo spacecraft that docked in orbit with a Soviet-made Soyuz vehicle. When the commander of the two aircrafts encountered, their “handshake in space” was symbolic to the improvement with the U.S. and Soviet relations in the Cold
Open Document