In the period after World War II, from the late 1940’s up until the 1990’s, the United States and their allies were engaged in a “cold” war with the Soviet Union and its allies. Except for minor proxy wars between countries supported by the respective sides, no major wars were fought between the U.S. and the USSR. Nonetheless, tensions were extremely high for many years and the two superpowers constantly went back and forth trying to best the other. Likely the most well-known of these competitions was the Space Race. Battling for cosmic supremacy from the late 1950’s to 1969, the two countries traded many victories over the years and pushed each other to their technological apexes.
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
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
The American and Soviet Union space programs were in a race to space during the cold war. This space race reflected many political, social, and economic aspects of the cold war. The fact that both countries were in the middle of a cold war didn’t help.
The American government and the people of the world have always been fascinated and dreamed about going into space. The United States of America was first to land on the moon. But the US went to the moon to beat the Soviet Union due to the US and the Soviets being enemies in the Cold War. During World War II, the United States and the Soviet Union fought together as allies against the Axis powers. However, the relationship between the two nations was a tense one. Americans had long been wary of Soviet communism and concerned about Russian leader Joseph Stalin’s rule of his own country. The war among the US, and Soviet Union was called the Cold War which neither the United States nor the Soviet Union wanted to openly fight each other and they were afraid of each other’s power. Since the US went to space in 1969, why haven't we gone farther, it is 2016. But, if the United States never of went to space in the first place, the world as we know it would not be the same.
Space exploration needs to start happening again because the US is starting to fall behind other countries such as Russia and India. Neil Degrasse Tyson says in his book, Space Chronicles: Facing the Ultimate Frontier, “The Soviets sent the first multi-person crew and the first international crew into orbit. They made the first spacewalk, launched the first space station, and were the first to put a manned space station into long-term orbit” (Tyson 122). The Soviets beat the US to everything other than the moon. The Space Race was a competition between mainly the US and Russia. Neil Degrasse Tyson says in his book, Space Chronicles: Facing the Ultimate Frontier, “the USSR held that high ground until 1969, when, courtesy of von Braun and colleagues,
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
World War II began because of an invasion from Nazi Germany to Poland causing Britain to declare war on Germany. During the fall of World War II and the beginning of the Cold War, space exploration was at the top of America’s to do list. America was not the only country interested in gaining answers about the solar system and its planets. There were many times during the Cold War where the Soviet Union would have dramatic increases in science and technology. The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics also known and the Soviet Union or USSR was a nation located in Eastern Europe and Northwestern Asia and its capital was Moscow. The competition between the United States and the USSR to see who could explore space by using artificial satellites and manned spacecraft began after the launch of the first Soviet satellite. Even though the society of America wanted to pursue the competition, President Eisenhower, however, did not want increase tensions.
The space race began during the Cold War in 1957, when the USSR launched Sputnik 1, an artificial satellite that orbited the earth for 21 days (Mintz). The USA tried to launch a satellite as well and failed. They eventually were able to launch their first satellite, Explorer 1, four months later. The USSR launched the first manned spaceship into orbit in 1961, with Yuri Gagarin, and five years later they were the first to land an unmanned vehicle on the moon. America felt vulnerable because they had always thought of themselves as ahead in technology so JFK made the announcement that they would be the first to land a man on the Moon, launching the Apollo program. The Gemini program was
In 1957, the two Cold War rivals, the United States and Soviet Union, competed for superiority over space traveling abilities. The dispute over who won the space race is unimportant, because both countries brought new advances in technology and inspired millions around the world. However, space exploration should not continue because it spends millions of tax dollars that could be used on Earth, and because it could disrupt and destroy the planet.
Along with job growth, the expansion of space programs will help a free market economy prosper on Earth. Every nation, along with private companies and militaries, will be subject to competition, which will benefit the citizens. One writer supported this claim by saying, “The successful launch of China’s first manned space mission has brought an element of competition to America’s space program that has been missing for far too long. Competition in space, whether for financial rewards on Earth or to protect vital military interests, was the catalyst behind the American space program’s success in its golden years” (McHale, Manned Space), and in contrast continued to state, “...NASA’s current manned space program has not garnered the same accolades
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.
International Space Station Commander, Terry Virts uses this article to analyze and argue his point of view on the potential difficulties NASA could have by creating another space station. His personal career and experiences allow him to make a good argument against this new
Ever since Apollo 11, when the US landed on the moon other countries thought about getting into ¨The Space Race¨. On April 19, 1971, the Soviet Union launched the first Space Station (Redd). As the soviets continued to send space stations into orbit, the US was working on a project. In 1984 President Ronald Reagan called for a space program that would include participation with the US allies. Two years later they made the idea of a space station and Reagan called it Freedom (Angelo 239). The building and the evolution of the International Space Station is one of the most important accomplishments in our planet's scientific history and brought the US together with other nations.
We have dreamt of spaceflight since ancient times. Humans have developed and thought of many ways to acquire this immense feat and it wasn’t till the 20th century mankind were able to build rockets powerful enough to overcome the force of gravity. Since then, we’ve successfully sent mankind to the moon, rovers to mars and space probes deep into the reaches of our solar system. Nations have striven to advance and attain great heights in the field of space exploration. The constant competitiveness between USA and USSR during the cold war led to many major breakthroughs in the history of space exploration beginning with USSR launching the first international space station and USA successfully landing a human on the moon. The international space station (ISS) stands as the basis of how international collaboration can affect space exploration. Even though some nations are unwilling to work together, space exploration provides a platform for nations to form relationships that benefits one another and create beneficial relationships with each other.