The Space Race: How The Cold War Changed American Society

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The Space Race July 20, 1969, the day that men stepped foot on the moon. It is a day that will forever go down in history as one of the most symbolic days in American history. The truth is, without the bitter and hateful Cold War rivalry between the communistic Union of Soviet Socialist Republic (USSR) and the democratic United States of America (USA), much of the military and technological advances that are seen in some people’s everyday lives might not have been discovered until much later. A lot of these advances had to do with the race to be the first super power into the new and unexplored frontier of space and establish power over the rest of the world. This era of the Cold War changed American society. It changed the minds of the people, and made breakthroughs that changed America and the world forever.…show more content…
It was a battle that prolonged the Cold War between the U.S.S.R. and the U.S. it was a battle to see who would give up first and call it quits on exploring space. The U.S.S.R. or the Soviets pulled ahead of the Americans quickly by being the first nation to send anything into outer space. They were able to successfully launch an artificial satellite named sputnik into space during the October month of 1957. Although Sputnik was no bigger than a beach ball and sent meaningless signals back into space, the beeps of the satellite were heard worldwide and had a profound thinking on citizens and governments everywhere; especially Americans. Out of nowhere, a soviet satellite was hovering above them and the thought of that more than terrified the United States (“Living in an Atomic Age”). The launching of a Soviet satellite urged the American government to start a space program and defend against the communist country, and marked the start of the space

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