Alan Shepard: The First Women In Space Exploration

The launch of the Sputnik had such a big impact on America because “America thought of themselves as the world’s technological leaders” (Richerme 35). Also “the Soviets, after all, were not supposed to be good at technology” (DeGroot 3). This scared America and brought them into a big crisis or as some call a race. This race was known as the space race and it was a very long and twisted path that it bared on its shoulders.

Sputnik was also called the “a technological Pearl Harbor” and it was, “a big blow against American prestige” (Wall). A short month later, Sputnik 2 was launched. American then made its move with Explorer 1 on January 31, 1958. For example, “ Explorer 1, the first American satellite to reach orbit, is launched. It carried equipment that lead to the discovery of the Van Allen radiation belt” (The Space Race Timeline). The Soviet Union responded with Luna 1. Luna 1 “was the first man made object to orbit the sun” (The Space Race Timeline). The US and the USSR have both made several accomplishments. Eventually, the United States ended the battle with one fatal blow. Putting a man on the moon and returning him safely back to Earth. The moon landing took place on July 20, 1969. The first man to walk on the moon was Neil Armstrong. Second was Edwin Aldrin. The moon landing ultimately ended the Space Race with American at the top. For example, “Most people agree that the space race ended on July 20, 1969, when Neil Armstrong stepped onto the moon for the first time” (Conger). All together, the United States of America ended up winning the Space Race. As you can see, both The US and the USSR had many

​Like I stated before the famous space race began in 1957 between the Soviet Union and the United States. They were both racing to see who could explore more of our Solar System. Space exploration was a large part of

During the late 50s and early 60s the United States was falling behind in this race, but it wasn’t over. The next task was to be able to send groups of people into space together on one ship. This initiated the Voskhod and Gemini programs, Voskhod in the Soviet Union and Gemini in the United States. In the Soviets’ case there was not much changed from the Vostok craft except for the fact that they could fit 2 or 3 people on the craft. The Soviet Union only did two manned flights with the Voskhod program and left it; one flight in ’64 and one in ’65. The United States had completely changed from their original Mercury program though. It had a new design and “ the new design retained the conical, nickel-alloy walls and fiberglass ablative heat shield of Mercury, it also made use of new features – such as translations control thrusters to alter orbit, hydrogen/oxygen fuel cells to generate electricity, a radar system to allow rendezvous with other craft, and avionics that could withstand depressurization”(Universe Today). These missions whether one manned or not all helped paved the way to the “final lap” in the race to space. The United States and the Soviet Union each wanted to be the first to put a man on the moon; thus the start of the Soyuz and Apollo programs. For the UNITED States and NASA the Apollo missions started in 1961, but the first flight was in 1967 after they concluded with all the Gemini missions. The first ever Apollo flight ended in tragedy with an electrical fire starting and the capsule was destroyed killing the three people on board of the spacecraft. Many unmanned trials went about until finally the second manned trial by NASA in December 1968 with the Apollo 8 flight. Unlike Apollo 1, Apollo 8 was a huge

Have you heard of the “Space Race”? It all began when the Soviet Union sent the first artificial satellite “Sputnik 1” into space. After that the United States rushed to catch up with the Soviet Union’s technological advances, and the Space Race started. The Space Race finally ended in 1969, when we sent the first man to land on the moon. The Space Race had many impacts on the Cold War.

Russia launched Sputnik, a satellite to orbit the earth, into outer space on October 4th, 1957. With tensions already running high in the Cold War, Americans panicked at the thought of the Russians building space and nuclear energy, fearing it could be used on them. The conflict now called the Space Race resulted in Americans creating NASA and pushing the sciences in school.

The first major way the space race reflected the situations was politically. The Soviet Union was extremely proud of the Sputnik 1 satellite. Sputnik was a simple satellite that became the first human made object to orbit the Earth on October 4, 1957 (Document E). In

Not only did the Soviets send the first space satellite up, but they also sent the first dog, woman, and man, also according to document F. During that time, there is great doubt that the U.S would even allow a woman to be involved in new space discoveries. The first woman ever in the world to go into space and that was given the privilege by the Soviets is Valetina Tereshkova on June 17th, 1963. Before Valetina was made into an astronaut, Yuri Gagarin was sent up on April 12th,1961. Even before sending a man, Russian astronomers decided to send a dog up! The dog’s name was Laia, and he went up into space on November 3rd, 1957. This is a time when not even America was up in space and the Soviets were discovering new things. The Soviet space race should be put into their textbooks to inspire the future generations or even the present generations to represent their country and make new discoveries every

Although there is disagreement on the precise date that the Space Race began, the moment that it became an important competition that was in the forefront of the minds of everyday Americans is on April 12, 1961 when Russian Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin orbited the earth in Vostok 1. (citation). This event created a feeling amongst the American public that the Russians were further ahead in science and technology than the United States, as well as the fear that the Soviets could use their superior technology to be better able to attack the USA from a distance. Shortly after Gagarin’s flight, the United States launched astronaut Alan Sheppard into

In the height of the space race between the United States of America and the Soviet Union, the competition to put the first man in space was intense. Between 1953 and 1961 Soviet scientist and aerospace engineers, planned and constructed many rocket and rocket launchers that would take the Soviet Union into Space. At the same time the United States of America also turned their attention to the sky and the Space Race began.

Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, and Richard Nixon influenced the pride of Americans. Although the USSR was first to fire its rocket into space, public opinion was persuaded by the downplay of the event by Dwight D. Eisenhower, the first president involved in the space race. In order to keep US moral strong, he took on the responsibility of creating a plan to join the competition. Years of research about space was conducted by the United States, but as soon as President Eisenhower signed an order officially created National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as a federal agency, the race for the first man in space or on the moon became real. Following the Cold War, the tension between the United States and the Soviet Union was at an all time high.

To begin with, the Space Race began all because of the Soviet Union and they kept pushing on to create and carry out with their objectives, meanwhile the United States was doing nothing. In an article, “United States-Soviet Cooperation during the Cold War” nasa.gov. Erika Vick, May 28, 2008. Web. , it says, “History changed on October 4, 1957, when the Soviet Union successfully launched Sputnik I.” In the late 1950’s they launched Sputnik I, which created the Space Race and it continued into the 1960’s, where the Soviet Union and the United States tried beating each other. If the Soviet Union started it, they should earn a little credit for giving the space science a tremendous advancement. For example, in an article by Global Security website, it says, “When communists were pressing for joint action in 1963, what it had meant was Soviet commitment to the policy of

NASA states that “The primary objectives for the Apollo 7 engineering test flight were simple: Demonstrate command and service module, or CSM, and crew performance; demonstrate crew, space vehicle and mission support facilities performance during CSM mission; and demonstrate CSM rendezvous capability.”(NASA) Clearly, the Apollo 7 made the way for the first man on the moon considering being the first people in space they did experiments which allowed the manned missions in space. “Apollo 7 was the only manned Apollo mission launched on a Saturn 1-B rocket and from pad 34 at Cape Kennedy. Apollo 7 was the first manned test of the Command and Service Module. The crew orbited the Earth 163 times and spent 10 days and 20 hours in space.” Evidently, the rocket and NASA’s projects on the Apollo 7 tested the rocket and show how it was holding up to look anything better for the future missions and to try to operate the technology better and see if it could improve. Lastly, NASA had to add to the rockets to make them better as well as the command module. “ The spacecraft for the Apollo 7 mission consisted of a launch escape system, command module, service module and a spacecraft-lunar module adapter that served as a mating structure to the instrument unit on top of the S-IVB stage of the Saturn IB rocket. This mission did not include a lunar module.” NASA know that if they were going to make it to the moon they would have to add a lunar module.NASA mission apollo 7 cleared the

The first decision was to reconfigure the Apollo program to be the vehicle for the first moon landing. Massive inventions in hardware and software and organization were needed to succeed. A launch control center named launch Complex 39, a vertical Assemble Building (VAB), a mobile launcher platform, a transporter, an operations and checkout building (OCB), and 2 vacuum chambers would need to be designed and built for the Apollo program to succeed in a moon landing.

Then it came time for the Apollo missions. Eleven manned launches into space, 6 of which landing on the moon, carried man farther than ever before. Apollo 1 was scheduled to be the first in the series. Just 4 days before the launch, there was a problem. During a test flight, a fire broke out inside the sealed capsule from faulty wiring. The fire suffocated the 3 astronauts inside. NASA launched a full investigation (Aldrin 3). “It exposed deep flaws in our capsules and procedures”, said Gene Kranz, the retired chief flight director at NASA during the Gemini and Apollo missions (When).