The Contributions Of The Space Race And The Cold War

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.

In 1957, the Soviet Union launched the satellite Sputnik, and the space race was on. The Soviet’s triumph jarred the American people and sparked a vigorous response in the federal government to make sure the United States did not fall behind its communist rival.

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.

From this technological race came the “Space Race” that led to mankind’s first steps towards exploring the universe beyond Earth. The first move of the Space Race occurred when the Soviet Union launched Sputnik, the first satellite to successfully travel in space, on October 4, 1957. The satellite orbited the Earth for more than ninety days, and its sole capability was to emit a beeping noise only audible on certain radio frequencies (“National Debate Topic…”). The first U.S. satellite, named Explorer 1, was sent into orbit just three months later on January 31, 1958. From these technological advances developed new, more challenging goals such as sending a man into space, which called for the national funding of a program that could push the United States into the forefront of the fight. Thus, NASA was created by the National Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958, which President Eisenhower signed on July 29, 1958 (“Creation of NASA” 261). This moment did not officially begin the NASA however; the program truly began in 1915 with the creation of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA). The stated goal of the Committee was to “…supervise and direct the

Sputnik 1 orbited the Earth every 98 minutes, flying over the United States seven times a day.(Danielle Burton) During the Cold war the launch of Sputnik I by the Soviet Union in October 1957 created a fear in the United States.The United states feared that nuclear warheads could soon come. In response the United States created and funded the National Defense Education Act(NDEA), and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration(NASA). The United States and the Soviet Union were at the start of an arms race and a space race. The funds for NASA were excellent, because the United states had a lot of fear after seeing what the Soviet Union was doing.

The news came as an ugly surprise to the Americans, who were not expecting the Soviets to beat them to space, but the United States responded quickly with a project of their own. Less than a year after Sputnik’s launch into space the US launched their own satellite, Explorer 1 into the atmosphere. Later that year, on the 29th of July, president Eisenhower signed off on the creation of National Aeronautics and Space Administration or NASA. For the years following the launch of Explorer 1 the Soviets and Americans would send many satellites and probes into space, each more impressive than the last. On May 25th, 1962, President John F. Kennedy addressed congress, attempting to boost the funding for NASA.

During the Cold War, the rivals--the United States and the Soviet Union--were in what seemed like a competition to determine who had the most advanced technology. This was because that country will be seen as the strongest and the biggest threat to the other. The space race really began officially on October 4, 1957, when the Soviet Union launched Sputnik I, which was the first artificial satellite ever to be launched in space. This was seen as a danger to the United States, because it meant that the Soviet Union was possible capable of doing other things, possibly against the US. Then the Soviets launched Sputnik II, but this time it had a passenger, a dog named Laika. Though this mission was a failure because poor Laika died within hours

During the Cold War, the United States and Russia had a severe space race between one another. Every time one country would be a step ahead of the other, and somehow one of the countries would catch up to the more advanced country at the time. During the early years of the space race, success was measured by what nation did what first: To the alarm of the United States, each of the early adventures were achieved by the Soviet Union. And all of those events triggered the United States to drive and catch up with to surpass the Soviet Union. This sort of see-saw method happen throughout the space race. Throughout this paper, there will be a discussion on the space race between the United Stated and

After the Cold War, The United States and the Soviet Union we’re still in competition. Instead of competing in war, they competed head-to-head in the race to the moon. Tom Wolfe wrote a nonfiction book about the stories of the test pilots and their struggle to become astronauts. During the “space race” there were major advances in technology that we continue to use and improve to this day. Wolf had many different viewpoints on the technology in the 1960’s and how it was affecting our lives then and how it would affect our lives now.

After WWII, the United States and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies engaged in a series of political, economic, military and technological competitions collectively known as the Cold War, which ended with the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. One product of the Cold War, in particular, is of unique interest: the Space Race. Initially, the Space Race seemed to be extensions of U.S. and Soviet military programs; it then transformed into a technological and political competition between the two aforementioned countries; eventually, the Space Race transcended the concept of competition, and became an international effort of space exploration, and especially, a means for the U.S. and USSR to make amends to their broken relationships.

In counter to the Soviet Union's launch America decided to launch their own satellite. That satellite is what pushed President Dwight Eisenhower to created the Aeronautics and Space Administration A.K.A NASA (History.com Staff, 2010). Now that both the Soviet Union and America have

Soon after World War II ended, the United States of America (U.S.A) and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (U.S.S.R.) entered the Cold War, an altercation between the two superpowers, which lasted over 40 years, due to their differing political systems; the U.S.S.R. was communist and the U.S.A. democratic (Alchin, 2017). In the late 1950s, the Space Race between the two superpowers begun with launch of Sputnik 1 by the U.S.S.R. in 1957 (Timeline of Space Exploration, 2009). On July 20 of 1969 the U.S.A.’s Apollo 11 mission was successful in ending the Space Race after landing on the moon (Timeline of Space Exploration, 2009). The first lunar landing is one of the most important events in modern human history, because it redefined the

"That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind."- Neil Armstrong. On October 4, 1957, 7:28 PM life changed in the United States and Russia because of the launch of sputnik the first man-made object to orbit the earth. The space race wasn't just a race to space, but a Continuum of the Cold War and a competition to see who the better country was really was. The US always felt that their technology exceeded everyone else’s, but on the day of October 4, they were proven wrong; the Soviets were on top. The launch of Sputnik was a huge success, but Dwight Eisenhower would try to downplay it to avoid accepting defeat. The United States would put 400,000 people to work on the project. This is the first time the US had embarked on such on

“A direct result of the Sputnik crisis, NASA began operations on October 1, 1958, absorbing into itself the earlier National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics intact: its 8,000 employees, an annual budget of $100 million, three major research laboratories-Langley Aeronautical Laboratory, Ames Aeronautical Laboratory, and Lewis Flight Propulsion Laboratory-and two smaller test facilities.”(Steve Ganer) This was because the start of the space race, although it had sent fear through so many, many more people had gotten jobs because of this. Although both Russia and the US had created new technologies, along with gaining new skills, there was only one winner of this Space Race. The winner was the ones who put in so much effort to keep their citizens safe, which was the US.

The Soviet Union and the United States competed for supremacy in space technology and knowledge during the 20th century competition known as the Space Race. This event changed space exploration and helped develop new ideas of technology to further expand our knowledge of space. “A greater emphasis on math and physical sciences was introduced to the American school system for the future development of technology. GPS, accurate weather predictions, satellites, and many more technologies are now available to the public because of the developments made during the Space Race.” Thanks to this 20th century competition it paved the way for technology today.