The Space Race

From 1957 to 1975, the Cold War between the Soviet Union (USSR) and the

United States (US) focused on space exploration, which was necessary for national

security and a symbol of technological and ideological superiority.

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The Space Race involved pioneering efforts to launch artificial satellites, sub-

orbital and orbital human spaceflight around the Earth, and piloted voyages to the

Moon.

Sputnik 1

It effectively began with the Soviet launch of the Sput-

nik 1 artificial satellite on October 4, 1957, and con-

cluded with the co-operative Apollo-Soyuz Test Project

human spaceflight mission in July 1975. The Apollo-

Soyuz Test Project came to symbolize a partial easing

of strained relations between the USSR and the US. The

Space Race had its origins in the missile-based arms

race that occurred just after the end of the World War

II, when both the Soviet Union and the United States

captured advanced German rocket technology and per-

sonnel.

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The Space Race increased investments on education and pure research, which

led to beneficial spin-off technologies. An unforeseen effect was that the Space

Race contributed to the birth of the environmental movement; the first color pic-

tures of Earth taken from deep space were used as icons by the movement to imply

that the planet was a fragile ”blue marble” surrounded by the blackness of space.

Some famous probes and missions include Sputnik 1, Explorer 1, Vostok 1, Mariner

2, Ranger 7, Luna 9, Alouette 1, Apollo 8, and Apollo 11.

The first human to journey into outer space was Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin,

when his Vostok spacecraft completed an orbit of the Earth on 12 April 1961.

Gagarin became an international celebrity, and was awarded many medals and

titles, including Hero of the Soviet Union, the nation’s highest honour.

Yuri Gagarin

Vostok

Apollo 11 was the spaceflight that landed the first humans on the Moon, Amer-

icans Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, on July 20, 1969. Armstrong became the

first to step onto the lunar surface six hours later on July 21. Armstrong spent

about two and a half hours outside the spacecraft, Aldrin slightly less, and together

they collected 47.5 pounds (21.5 kg) of lunar material for return to Earth.

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Neil Armostrong

Lunar Module

Launched by a Saturn V rocket from Kennedy Space Center in Merritt Island,

Florida, on July 16, Apollo 11 was the fifth manned mission of NASA’s Apollo

program. The Apollo spacecraft had three parts: a Command Module (CM) with

a cabin for the three astronauts, and the only part that landed back on Earth;

a Service Module (SM), which supported the Command Module with propulsion,

electrical power, oxygen, and water; and a Lunar Module (LM) for landing on

the Moon. After being sent toward the Moon by the Saturn V’s upper stage,

the astronauts separated the spacecraft from it and traveled for three days until

they entered into lunar orbit. Broadcast on live TV to a world-wide audience,

Armstrong stepped onto the lunar surface and described the event as ”one small

step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.” Apollo 11 effectively ended the Space

Race and fulfilled a national goal proposed in 1961 by the late US President John

F. Kennedy in a speech before the United States Congress, ”before this decade is

out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth.”

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