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Space race during the cold war thesis
United States vs Soviet Union Race to Space
Space race during the cold war thesis
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During the 1960s the Soviet Union and the United States were engaged in the “Space Race”. The spacecraft Luna 9 was initially the first soft landing on the moon.This accomplishment for the Soviet Union took place in 1966.As a matter of fact, if it was not for the hard work and the competition of the Soviet Union and the United States pushing for space exploration, this event would not have happened. The launching of Luna 9 took time and dedication from many people. Launching a spacecraft takes a lot of planning. Therefore, it took time for this mission to happen. They needed to plan the launching, how long it was going to take for the spacecraft to reach the moon, speed, direction and of course, how they were going to build the spacecraft, …show more content…
Therefore, there were many events that led up to the launching of Luna 9. According to the article, Humanity’s exploration to the moon, it states that in 1610 Galileo Galilei made the first telescopic observation of the moon. Later on, in 1645 Michael Florent van Langren made the first map of the moon. Therefore, both of these discoveries had encouraged the thought of space exploration. Then, almost three centuries later in 1920, Robert Goddard suggested sending rockets to the moon (Space.com staff). Many people took this into consideration and in 1957 the Space Race began. However, the Cold War began in 1945 and caused a conflict between the Soviet Union and the United States. In 1957 the launching of Sputnik, by the Soviet Union, initiated the beginning of the “race to space” (NASA). During this time period, it was the peak of the Cold War. The United States got involved in the Space Race in fear that the Soviet Union had better technology. This made the U.S. worried due to the face that they did not know if they were going to use this technological advancement in the war (NASA). The next year, in 1958 the United States launched its own satellite, Explorer I (history.com staff). The next launching was the launching of Luna 2, which was sent into outer space in 1959. The mission of Luna 2 eventually leads up to the launching of Luna 9 which took place in …show more content…
Shortly after Luna 9 was launched the Soviets launched Luna 10 making it the first spacecraft to ever orbit the moon. After a few months the United States made it first soft landing on the moon with the spacecraft Surveyor 1 on June 2, 1966 (space.com staff). In less than six months the Luna 9 spacecraft inspired two new spacecrafts Luna 10 and Surveyor 1. These two spacecrafts both had very successful missions. Soon after these successes Apollo 7, which was the first manned Apollo mission, it launches on a Saturn 1 for an 11 day mission orbiting around the Earth.This mission featured the first live TV broadcast from space(space.com staff). “Six years after U.S. President John F. Kennedy’s assassination, the Apollo 11 crew lands on the Moon, fulfilling his promise to put an American there by the end of the decade and return him safely to Earth”(Space.com staff). The United States could fulfill this promise that John F. Kennedy made to the World because of all the successes in the Space
"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.
The Soviet’s were responsible for putting man on the moon, rovers on Mars, and launching the Hubble Space Telescope. Indeed, it was the United States’ foes that drove the U.S. to accomplish perhaps the greatest feats of the twentieth century. Following the defeat of Germany and Japan in World War II, tensions between former allies, the United States and the Soviet Union, began to grow. In the following decades, the two superpowers would duke it out in competitions and tremendous shows of nationalism. They formed unmatchable rivalries in politics, economics, sciences, and sports. 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 into the American Public, resulting in the creation of NASA in the late 1950’s which opened the door for space exploration today and for future generations.
On July 20, 1969 Neil Armstrong planted the first human footprints in the lunar soil. The United States had accomplished their goal in sending men to the moon. They managed to not only send them 238,857 mi. (384,403 km) into space to our neighbor celestial body, but also send them back with a successful flight to our mother earth. This seems like a difficult task for a country that was behind Russia in space exploration at the time.
However before this event happened the “race to space” was initiated on October 4, 1957. However, before America launched people to space the Soviet Union was leaving us in the dust with the launch of Sputnik.
The success of Apollo 11 which included the historic presence of the first humans on the moon signified the greatest extent of human intellectual advancement. Apollo 11 was part of a larger project known as the Apollo Program, comprised of a large number of unmanned test missions and 11 manned missions. The Apollo Program was intended to land humans on the moon and safely return them back to Earth. Of the 15 missions executed, six resulted in success to date. The concept of space expedition was initially sparked by the Russian launch of satellite Sputnik during the Cold War. The launch induced the creation of NASA’s first human spaceflight program called Project Mercury. A portion of the United States saw the launch as beneficial, as it established the need for the country’s advance, whereas others were concerned about what the Soviet Union will make out of this achievement. The first successful manned space expedition executed was Apollo 7, which had a tremendous influence in the outcome of the subsequent missions. Various other missions were performed before the launch of Apollo 11, some of which were unsuccessful such as Apollo 1, whereas others, like Apollo 7, had prospered in assisting in the success of Apollo 11. During the momentous mission, the participants, Neil A. Armstrong, Michael Collins, and Edwin E. Aldrin, fulfilled their roles effectively. With the actions of those that participated in the mission, the United States was able to leave a physical mark on the uncharted territory thought to have been far beyond human reach.
“That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind,” was stated by Neil Armstrong once a national goal was accomplished. Landing successfully on the moon was a major goal for astronauts of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Neil Armstrong and Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin were honored to be the very first of mankind to step foot on the moon, and allowed America to set future goals for outer-space journeys. With the assigned Apollo mission, America was granted much needed hope. Astronauts of NASA in the Apollo Program accomplished John F. Kennedy’s goal of placing the first man on the moon safely for the United States.
The Americans took a much more urgent approach after seeing what the U.S.S.R. was truly capable of. The United States would respond with various satellites including those of the Explorer Series and more. However, the Soviet Union would again one-up the United States, and all of their now seemingly feeble satellite launches, by putting the first man into outer space, Yuri Gagarin, in 1961. Now the quest gained an even more competitive drive and the United States soon put Alan B. Shepard into space twenty-three days later. The Space Race was truly a trek for the firsts of history, essentially just exterrestrial one-ups throughout an extended period of time. That very same year, John F. Kennedy founded NASA, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, just for that purpose, to explore the world beyond their own, while maintaining the central aim, to beat the Soviets outright. JFK was a leading power in this race, and “by giving NASA programs top priority, his actions essentially played on American fears of communism and implicitly inferred that the Eisenhower administration had not done enough to meet the Sputnik challenge. Too many Americans were beginning to feel a need to vindicate the ‘long-standing communist boast that theirs was the superior system for galvanizing human productivity’” (Koman 43). Winning this space race was way more than just an extraterrestrial victory, it would hopefully squander the communists’ hopes and assert true American dominance. The United States sought to eliminate any presumption of communist superiority and did so in the near future by winning this Cold War space race, thanks to the execution of a truly unimaginable
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.
The Soviets launched the Sputnik, the first artificial satellite, which introduced the Space Age. Sputnik was way bigger than the U.S. first satellite. This put the Soviets technology ahead of the United States. This cause many people to fear the soviets because they didn't expect them to have this type of technology. This would soon begin the great Space Race. With the Sputnik launched many people feared what the other nation could achieve.
Early on in the race, the USSR was very successful. In 1957, the Soviets launched Sputnik, which triggered the start of the space race (John F. Kennedy). The United States began to scramble, trying to catch up with the Soviets. However, soon after, the Soviet Union completed another huge success. They sent the first man to orbit Earth (John F. Kennedy). In 1961 the USSR’s Yuri Gagarin became the first human to ever orbit the Earth (John F. Kennedy). The United States was still unsuccessful and beginning to look weak. After that, America got serious. On May 25, 1961, President Kennedy asked Congress for around eight billion dollars to build up the space program over the next five years (John F. Kennedy). The president declared, “This nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before the decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to Earth” (John F. Kennedy).
The Space Race began in or around the late-1950s, during the Cold War. The United States and Russia were both anxious to become the country to explore space. Unfortunately for the US, Russia launched the first artificial satellite and man-made object to orbit Earth, Sputnik. The launch of Sputnik surprised the United States, and we rushed to get our own space craft into space, and to beat Russia to anything else space related.
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...
In 1957 the Soviets used a missile to launch a satellite, Sputnik 1, into orbit around the earth. The arms race then became a space race as the United States rushed to launch its own satellites, some for military
In 1958 a group known as The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) was founded. The first probe to escape Earth's gravity was the Soviet LUNA 1, launched on Jan. 2, 1959. It passed the Moon and continued into interplanetary space. The U.S. probe Pioneer 4, launched two months later, followed the same path. Later Soviet probes either hit the Moon or passed it and took photographs of the hidden far side, relaying them back to Earth.
Later that May, President John F. Kennedy made the bold, public claim that the U.S. would land a man on the moon before the end of the decade. December 1968 saw the launch of Apollo 8, the first manned space mission to orbit the moon from NASA. On July 16, 1969, U.S. astronauts Neil Armstrong, Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin and Michael Collins set off on the Apollo 11 space mission, the first lunar landing attempt. After landing successfully on July 20, 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