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Differences and similarities between russia and united states during the space race
Cold War and Russia
Cold War and Russia
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Introduction:
The 1900’s was an era in which mankind has greatly excelled in the field of technology and greatly increasing the knowledge of the universe and cosmos in which we live in. However, with out a certain event in that era, we wouldn’t have much knowledge of space or certain everyday technologies that we would think would be created without the event. Such as the microwave. This event, was The Space Race.
The race essentially began from the rivalry that has risen between the United States and Russia from the Cold War. The two nations always tried to prove that one is better than the other whether it was from; Who can build the better weapon? Who’s leadership is better? Who is the most powerful? Russia believed that by studying the cosmos with outer space instruments and people it would finally prove that they are the greatest and most powerful nation in the world. To achieve this, Russia has created the Russian Federal Space Agency (RFSA) to research and launch missions and satellites into space to finally understand what is outside the boundaries of Earths atmosphere. It has also made America a greater and more dominant power.
After the Russians have sent a satellite (Sputnik 1) to measure the conditions of space, it has caused America and its citizens to worry since it sent signals in which receivers for radios and broadcasts could pick up and the unknown signals troubled people and their broadcasts. In response to this, the United States created the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to quickly catch up and create better and more advanced satellites and propel America forward into leading the race and eventually answer and discover questions that has made mankind wonder for many years and centurie...
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...he world?:
The space race has made America a more dominant power in the world. It has progressed it politically to mark itself as a greater more powerful nation. Socially, the citizens of America are amazed by how the United States was able to win the space race by landing on the closest outer space object in history. However, though it is controversial that the soviet union should’ve won since they were the first to send an orbiting man, the United States has won the race to seize and gain control and dominance in space. Though the space race was a huge competition, politicians deemed it a draw once they have finally have built the International Space Station (ISS). The space dominance have actually helped the U.S. since it was able to show areas on the Earth and provide a military step up in imagery and GPS. The space race has made America the nation it is today.
...o the Soviets inability to properly contain their civilians. The main reasons why the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics lost the Space Race the United States of America are because the USSR was communist. The civilians did not support or like living in a communist society, which made them flee to freedom and ran the cost of border control up to employ more guards. Also, the USSR alone controlled East Germany and East Berlin, while the United States ran West Berlin and West Germany with its allies France and Britain. Finally, the United States was tough competition for the Soviets. The sheer determination of the Americans to defeat the Soviets in the Space Race and restore order in Europe was greater than the Soviets expected. Even after failed attempts at reaching space, the Americans never gave up and beat the Russians to the moon, winning the Space Race.
"One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind," said by Neil Armstrong as he took his first steps on the moon during the NASA Apollo 11 expedition to the moon. No man has ever been to the moon before and NASA, The National Aeronautics and Space Administration, was the first to get someone to land on the moon. NASA has had many great accomplishments in exploring the "new frontier" that have affected the United States ever since it was first created in July 1958. The idea for NASA first started when the Soviet Union launched the first satellite on October 4, 1957. United States started up its own space travel program and started to work on its own projects that would be better in than the Soviet Union's. This all started the great space race. It was a big race between the Soviet Union and the United States to see who could learn and discover the most. The United States and Soviet Union started building and sending satellites and space ships. Then they tried to see who could make a suit and ship that would be able to allow a living thing to go up in space. They tested out all of the equipment with monkeys and dogs, seeing what would work. Many animals did die in the process but by the results of their testing they were able to build suits and ships that allow human beings to go up in space. Even though they were able to create these machines, that doesn't mean that they didn't have their difficulties and dangers. Two space shuttles were crashed or blown up. There were many key factors that they had learned to fix that resulted in the crashing of those ships. They have made many discoveries and accomplishments like having the first astronauts walk on the moon.
These rivalries would become clear when two countries competed in the space race, a competition between the U.S. and the Soviet Union concerning achievements in the field of space exploration. The Soviet’s took the early lead as they put the first satellite, Sputnik 1, into space. The launch of Sputnik 1 established a sense of fear in the American public, resulting in the creation of NASA in the late 1950’s. This opened the door for space exploration today and for future generations. After World War II, the Cold War created tensions between the Soviet Union and the United States leading to extreme national pride and competition, culminating in the space race which began with the launch of Sputnik 1.
The 1960’s were full of questions, and one of the biggest questions the world was pondering about was regarding the Space Race: was the USA going to beat their communist enemy, the Soviet Union? The Space Race was a series of events that helped to symbolize and determine in the worlds’ eyes which form of government was better, communism (Soviets) or democracy (United States)? In the beginning of the race, the Soviets had the lead, and it was not looking good for America. Then the United States picked up the pace and spent well over eight billion dollars funding the space studies. This period of time made many scientists and astronauts heroes in the eyes of Americans. The Space Race was a combination of determination, intelligence, space projects, and American pride, all used to reach our exploration goals and surpass the Soviets.
At the end of WWII in 1945, the USA and the Soviet Union emerged as the world’s superpowers. This was a time of great tension, rivalry and distrust between the United States and the Soviet Union. It was a time of political, diplomatic, military and economic rivalry where both nations wanted to emerge as the world’s new superpower. Hence, the Cold War would be of profound significance in the development of the space race as the space race was a key element in the rivalry of political, economic and social dominance.
American nationalism during the Space Race fueled support for NASA, resulting in great technological and scientific advancements during the Cold War. The hyper-competitive atmosphere surrounding the Cold War heightened already existing rivalry between the United States’ and the Soviet Union’s science programs. As the two superpowers struggled for technological dominance, the American people were swept into a frenzy of nationalism. The Science News-Letter pointed out that the Space Race was driven by, “nothing more or less than the ego-driven pressures of competition.” The idea of the Soviet Union both having a superior space program as well as having the capacity to attack the United States with intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) brought the U.S. space program off the ground.
The United Space endured a long, competitive, tumultuous, and primed-to-explode relationship with the Soviet Union since its inception. The Space Race was perhaps the greatest spectacle of scientific engineering in the first 5.755 millennia. The U.S. had to reclaim its superior status after the Soviets launched Sputnick I into orbit on October, 4, 1957, and launched Yuri Gagarin into space on April 12, 1961 as the first human in space. Kennedy knew that the American people wanted a victory in the space race, and realized that, being so far away, the United Space could achieve it. Then, on September 12, 1962, President Kennedy gave the “Address at Rice University on the Nation's Space Effort”. This address is best known by this paragraph:
Throughout history, science and technology has been relied on to advance humanity. In the Cold War period, this was no different. In fact, the Cold War period was characterized as much by scientific and technological innovation as it was the clash of East and West. From missiles to the space race, science and technology reassured both superiority and mutual destruction throughout the era. The space race, in particular, was a longstanding battle for domination between American and Soviet minds. No longer was space travel confined to science fiction, but a reality that needed to be explored in order to maintain the grasp on victory in the Cold War. This paper will argue that although the domination for space acted as a metaphor for Cold War superiority, ultimately space colonization was the catalyst to American exploration in science fiction and Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs) propaganda. As a result, when the Americans landed their astronauts first on the moon, it was a victory for America’s policy, imagination, and people. First, an exploration of the history and politics of space travel in the United States and Soviet Union will be discussed. From there, both political cartoons and the development of science fiction will be developed alongside the events that lead up to Sputnik’s launch and Apollo 11’s moonwalk in order to draw the parallel that interest in space fuelled science fiction phenomena. Although this paper focuses on the events leading up to Apollo 11, a discussion of the declining role of science fiction and interest in space as a means to win the Cold War will be put into focus. Lastly, the climatic events of the 1950s and 1960s space age will be compared and contrasted with contemporary events in order to determi...
The word race is defined at its core as a competition between runners, horses, vehicles, boats, etc. to see which is the fastest in covering a set course. Well, interestingly enough, a race of a different kind occurred between two countries from the years 1957 to 1969. The competition was unclear, and the opponents were on two entirely different continents, not something as simplistic as two horses. The United States and the United Soviet States of Russia both set out as arch rivals in the “Space Race,” a quest for dominance beyond the known Planet Earth. Ironically enough, just as communism was spreading to all parts of the world, the United States always sought to squash this form of government, despite somewhat dire consequences. Now, with
The Vostok Space Program, launched by the USSR during the Cold War, was a huge breakthrough in the field of astronautics. This program managed to launch the first man in space, Yuri Gagarin, which left Americans speechless. The Russians’ achievements provoked America to start keeping up with them. The Russians’ and the Americans’ struggle to be the most technologically advanced nation in the world is known as the Space Race. As a consequence of their race, many inventions and advancements came into being, many of them being used for other purposes than astronautics. The Vostok Program was a turning point in history by humanity’s first exploration of space, its provocation of the space race during the Cold War, and the practical uses of the inventions created for competing in the space race.
Politically, the Soviet Union and the United States were in an arms race as well as a space race which impacted the two countries greatly(413). After the USSR launched Sputnik, U.S. tried make more advancements in the space race. Meanwhile, Russia’s dive into creating the intercontinental ballistic missile put America in a tight spot. America however countered ICBM with its own version. Because of the arms race between the
After World War II both the United States and the Soviet Union realized how important rocket research would be to the military. So they each hired the top rocket scientists from Germany to help with their research. After they hired them both sides were making a lot of progress. The Space Race began in 1955 when the Americans announced that they would start launching satellites into orbit. The Soviets took the US announcement as a challenge and established a group whose goal was to beat the US in putting a satellite into orbit. Even though the United States started the competition the Soviets still won because they launched the first successful satellite into orbit, put a dog into outer space and also put the first man into outer space. Some might say that the United States won because they put the first man on the moon, which was a huge feat made by the Americans. So for winning many missions against the U.S. the Soviets won the Space Race.
In 1969 during the cold war, the race of the century was in full force. The United States of America and the Soviet Union were going head to head in a race that dared to push the boundaries of modern day science,
The space race was the product of the Cold War. It was an effort to prove technological superiority but on the other hand, it was also feared on both sides that weapons of mass destruction will be placed in orbit. In 1957, the Soviet Union sent the 184 pound Sputnik 1 satellite into Earth’s orbit. It was the first artificial satellite and the first manmade object to be placed into Earth’s orbit. Following that, they also sent the first animal into space, Laika the dog. In 1958, the United Sates also launched their first satellite into orbit, dubbed Explorer 1. The Soviet space program advanced once again in 1959. The Soviet Union launched Luna 2, which was the first space probe to hit the moon. In April 1961, the Soviet Union had the ultimate success, sending the first human into space. The name of the Russian cosmonaut was Yuri Gagarin, who made a 108 minute suborbital flight in a Vostok 1 spacecraft. One month after that, Alan Shepard became the American in space aboard the Freedom 7 spacecraft. Continuing from there, each nation step...
Space travel was born from the flames of war – or in this case, the refrigerators of war. The Soviet Union and the United States were ready to show up each other in the fields of science and engineering, and with the recent advent of rocketry, it was evident that space was the next goal. Russia held the first few victories: including the first man-made satellite and the first man in space. Following these defeats, America picked itself up, and defeated the Russians on the race to the moon.