Cold War: The Space Race

During the twentieth century, the power struggle between the United States and the Soviet Union became prevalent through proxy wars and the Space Race. The Cold War had begun in 1947 when the United States had become more worried about the growing influence of the Soviet Union on Eastern European nations. The rivalry between the Soviet Union and the United States had become one of the biggest contests, that eventually culminated in the dissociation of the Soviet Union. Although there were many different events that had occurred during the Cold War, perhaps the most important one would be the Space Race. Despite popular belief, the moon landing was the reason that America became a global superpower because it showed America had superior

The Space Race was a competition between the Soviet Union and the United States for supremacy in space. From 1955 until 1975, both sides battled it out to be the leader in the competition. Fueled by the Cold War and other causes of the beginning of the race, the Soviet Union and the United States fought for authority in a very public manner through the media. There were many achievements at this time and it led the way for many great things to come afterwards.

​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

In addition, the Soviets greatest accomplishments were in the participation in the Space Race. The Soviets successfully launched Sputnik the world's first artificial satellite, October 4, 1957 (Doc F). These achievements showed the world how technologically advanced the Soviets where. Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first man to orbit the Earth (Doc F). Valentina Tereshkova became the first women in space (Doc F), and Laika was the first dog in space (Doc F). The Soviet accomplishments will be engraved into Soviet textbooks, but memorialized in human history as

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

The Space Race, occurring between 1957 and 1975, allowed both the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and The United States of America to develop technology and spread their respective communist and capitalist ideologies. The Space Race allowed the two nations to compete for superiority in a non-lethal arena. Unlike other confrontations, the Space Race also gave both parties the platform to prove their superiority to their own nations through frequent propaganda use in the form of film, television, paintings, cartoons, posters, ect. Propaganda allowed both nations to influence people's attitudes, beliefs, and behaviours by injecting their own political ideology.

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

The Space Race was a competition between the Soviet Union and the United States to see which nation could achieve spaceflight dominance before the other. The Race began on August 2, 1955 and ended nearly 40 years later in December of 1991. The Space Race began because of two major factors that would carry it until its end. The Soviet Union’s announcement that they were going to began building and using satellites to use in space days before the United States planned to announce the same thing helped fuel the fire for the competition. The Cold War also played a very influential role in the competitiveness between the countries and would inspire them to be better and work harder than their rival. The general public also played a key role in the race. Reinforcing your country’s involvement in the race gave them the all clear to spend money to build these space crafts, satellites and other technology in order to not only win, but to please the people. If a country has the support of its people they can accomplish anything. Propaganda like posters became a great way of encouraging the people to get involved and stay involved. Posters depicted great spaceships only seen in movies, engrained a hatred for the opposing country, the influence the race had on the future, and astronauts as real life superheroes like Superman. Most importantly the Space Race was a time of great inventions that carry on to

The Space Race was an immense rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union beginning in the late 1950s. They fought over supremacy for space flight and technology, each side wanting to show the world their power and their capability to explore the unknown. They both created shuttles and rockets in hopes to prove their own worth, while also using this technology to spy on one another. Each country also needed public support and cooperation to back these projects for future advancements. Many political tensions between Democracy and its antagonistic counterpart, Communism, arose leading to new technological advancements, while the media began to publicize these advances worldwide, and beliefs like nationalism became implemented that would raise the importance of the space race to all.

It occurred between the Soviet Union (USSR) and the United States, and the two cold war rivals. Technological superiority was essential for the symbolic of ideology and national security. The space race generated innovative artificial satellites, human spaceflights, and unmanned probes of the Mars, Venus and the Moon. Everyone wanted to lead in terms of technological advancement and ability to innovate new

The Space Race greatly affected American Politics and left a stellar legacy on Earth along with the discovery of many useful products used in space technology modified for modern day use. Evan Herbert exclaims how The Space Race affected American Politics by stating; “The presidencies of Eisenhower and Kennedy were put under great strain during this intense rivalry between these two world super powers. Eisenhower assertiveness was questioned after the Soviet launching of their Sputnik satellite. President Kennedy had to keep morale and support for the Space Race afloat when the American public question the purpose, necessity and budget for the en- devour”(Herbert 7). Herbert also adds a quote from one of President John F. Kennedy’s speeches after he states, “On September 12th, 1962 at Rice Stadium, President John F. Kennedy gave one of his most famous speeches ever given”. Herbert then states what John F. Kennedy articulates towards the end of his speech, ‘“Well, space is there, and we’re going to climb it, and the moon and the planets are there, and new hopes for knowledge and peace are there”’(Herbert 2). Bill Dietrich remarks about the legacy that The Space Race has given us in present times as he questions, “What has the Space Race accomplished?”, he then continues on his question, “Will future historians someday link the demise of the Soviet Union to its launch of Sputnik?”(Dietrich 1). Dietrich answers these two questions later in his article by

The Soviets wanted to study the earth’s atmosphere, the behavior of animals in space, and the testing of rocket technology. Russia launched Sputnik 1, which carried a dog, into space. This helped to understand how humans might react in space and through the reentry process. The United States was urged to invest more of their money and resources into its space program, generating a race between the two countries to land a person on the moon. The whole race started on October 4, 1957, when the first Sputnik was launched. This satellite weighed about 184 pounds and the official name of it was "Iskustvennyi Sputnik Zemli" (1). Which meant "fellow world traveler of the earth". To counteract the United States’ launch of the Explorer 1, a satellite that included a rocket motor, the Russian’s responded with Sputnik 3 on May 15, 1958. The first three Sputnik satellites all carried instruments to measure the temperature and density of the earth’s upper atmosphere. Solar energy was used for the first time by Sputnik 3 to power its instruments and transmitters.

However, a little- known fact, as the military was developing rockets designed to launch missiles against our enemies we also intended to place a satellite into space. In 1957 during the International Geophysical Year (IGY) we announced that we would launch a satellite to conduct experiments. Nevertheless, President Eisenhower did not want the first satellite in space launched on top of a military rocket. The Soviets launch Sputnik, and shortly after that, NASA is born, President Eisenhower and Congress make the space race a priority whereas before it was strictly military focus. Unfortunately the Soviets maintain their edge during the years between 1957 and 1961, first Sputnik, then a dog, a man, and a woman. However, this all changes on May 25, 1961 when President Kennedy announces his goal to reach the moon first. Congress supports his decision and commits assets all with the single objective of landing on the moon first. By February 20, 1962, John Glenn becomes the first US astronaut to orbit the earth. Piloted space flight becomes a reality. The United States and the Soviet Union launch rockets with impunity as the world watches slowly there is a realization that the moon is within human reach. As a result the United Nations sponsors the Outer Space Treaty in 1967, essentially limiting the use of outer space for

Did you know that the Soviet Union was the first to launch something outside of Earth’s orbit? In the 1960’s, the Soviet Union speed up the advancement of space science, faster than the United States ever could, during the Space Race. First of all, they were the first to start the Space Race and continually kept going onward to try new concepts and/or more concepts. On the other hand, the Soviet Union were more focused on witnessing who’s better. Finally, the Soviet Union were the ones who sent multiple of inventions into space, but still had a bunch of trial and error and learned what worked and what didn’t work.

The Space Age emphasized the invention of a sophisticated technology, Sputnik 1, an artificial satellite launched by the Soviet Union. The development of these artificial satellites led other countries such as German and the U.S. to compete with each other. V-2 rocket technology then developed by German scientists leading to a more advanced space technologies. The U.S. also invented rocket engines by Robert Goddard and Wernher von Braun that contributed to the world’s space systems still today. President John F. Kennedy of the U.S. announced Apollo 11 spacecraft as to be the first in landing a human on the moon after the Soviet Union launched Sputnik 2 successfully carried a dog into space proving the possibility of human space travel (Fitzgerald,