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Space Race

In: Historical Events

Submitted By einspahr
Words 587
Pages 3
Ryan Einspahr
HIST101
Individual Project
4/13/2015

The Space Race After World War II the two most powerful nations began a battle between each other known as the Cold War. According to History.com Staff (2010) “The two nations, The United States, and the Communist Soviet Union sought to prove superiority over one another through technology, its military firepower and - by extension - its political-economic system.” The Space Race lasted from the late 1950’s through the early ‘70’s with both countries making giant leaps into the realms of space we had yet to explore and discover.
According to History.com Staff (2010) “On October 4, 1957, a Soviet R-7 intercontinental ballistic missile launched Sputnik (Russian for “traveler”), the world’s first artificial satellite and the first man-made object to be placed into the Earth’s orbit.” Sputnik scared most Americans, with most people thinking that Russia could see our every move and potentially use a nuclear weapon from space against us. Although these were reasonable ideas the Sputnik satellite was nothing more than a harmless silver ball with a blinking light on it. This was truly the beginning of the Space Race. The United States knew it was losing ground on the Soviets and had to even up the score fast, and Explorer-I was the answer for the United States. According to Ludwig, George H. (April 1959) “Explorer-I, officially known as Satellite 1958 Alpha, was the first United States earth satellite and was sent aloft as part of the United States program for the International Geophysical Year 1957-1958. It was designed and built by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) of the California Institute of Technology under the direction of Dr. William H. Pickering. The satellite instrumentation of Explorer-I was designed and built by Dr. James Van Allen of the State University of Iowa.”
In 1958, President Dwight Eisenhower, created the National Aeronautics and Space Administration best known as NASA. After the Soviets took more steps ahead of the United States with landing a probe on the moon and sending the first human into orbit around earth, President John F. Kennedy made a bold public statement that the United States would land a man on the moon before the end of the decade. The Apollo missions were the start of what ultimately would land men on the moon for the first time in history. The most famous of these missions was Apollo 11. Manned by Neil Armstrong, Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin, and Michael Collins, the feat of landing a man on the moon became a reality on July 20th 1969. After successfully landing, Neil Armstrong became the first man to walk the moon, unofficially defeating the Soviets in the space race by doing what was once thought impossible.
With the help of the television and radio the world was captivated by all of the feats accomplished by both sides during the Space Race. Americans looked to these astronauts as hero’s and helped inspire Americans to believe anything is possible if you put your mind to it. The Space Race and the moon landings were very important parts of American history and helped dawn a new exploration into what we know as outer space.

References: History.com Staff, History.com, 2010, The Space Race, A+E Networks, http://www.history.com/topics/space-race Ludwig, George H. "Cosmic- Ray Instrumentation in the First U.S. Earth Satellite" The Review of Scientific Instruments, Volume 30, Number 4, April 1959. http://history.nasa.gov/sputnik/expinfo.html

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