A new conflict erupted after World War II ended in the mid-twentieth century. This battle, known as the Cold War, pitted the world’s two great powers against each other: the democratic, capitalist United States and the communist Soviet Union. Beginning in the late 1950s, space would become another dramatic arena for this competition, with each side attempting to demonstrate the superiority of its technology, military firepower, and, by extension, political-economic system.
Causes of the Space Race
By the mid-1950s, the United States-Soviet Cold War had permeated the fabric of daily life in both countries, fueled by an arms race and the growing threat of nuclear weapons, extensive espionage and counter-espionage between the two countries, the Korean War, and a clash of words and ideas in the media. These tensions would be exacerbated by events such as the construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961, the Cuban missile crisis in 1962, and the outbreak of war in Southeast Asia throughout the space race.
Space exploration provided another dramatic arena for Cold War rivalry. Sputnik (Russian for “traveler”), the world’s first artificial satellite and the first man-made object to enter Earth’s orbit, was launched on October 4, 1957, by a Soviet R-7 intercontinental ballistic missile. To most Americans, Sputnik’s launch came as a surprise, not a pleasant one. Space was seen as the next frontier in the United States, a logical extension of the grand American tradition of exploration, and it was critical not to lose too much ground to the Soviets. Furthermore, the demonstration of the R-7 missile’s overwhelming power—apparently capable of delivering a nuclear warhead into US airspace—made gathering intelligence on Soviet military activities particularly urgent.
NASA Is Created
The United States launched its own satellite, Explorer I, in 1958, designed by the United States Army under the direction of rocket scientist Wernher von Braun. In the same year, President Dwight D. Eisenhower established the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), a federal agency dedicated to space exploration.
Eisenhower also established two national security-oriented space programs that would run concurrently with NASA’s program. The first, led by the US Air Force, was devoted to maximizing space’s military potential. The second, code-named Corona, was led by the CIA, the Air Force, and a new organization called the National Reconnaissance Office (the existence of which was kept secret until the early 1990s). It would gather intelligence on the Soviet Union and its allies using orbiting satellites.
Achievements of Apollo
NASA’s budget was nearly 500 percent increased from 1961 to 1964, and the lunar landing program eventually involved 34,000 NASA employees and 375,000 industrial and university contractors. In January 1967, three astronauts were killed when their spacecraft caught fire during a launch simulation, putting an end to Apollo. Meanwhile, the Soviet Union’s lunar landing program proceeded cautiously, partly due to internal debate about its necessity and the untimely death (in January 1966) of Sergey Korolyov, the Soviet space program’s chief engineer.
In December 1968, NASA’s massive launch facility on Merritt Island, near Cape Canaveral, Florida, launched Apollo 8, the first manned space mission to orbit the moon. On July 16, 1969, US astronauts Neil Armstrong, Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin, and Michael Collins launched the Apollo 11 space mission, the first lunar landing attempt. After successfully landing on the moon on July 20, Armstrong became the first man to walk on its surface; he famously described the moment as “one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”
Who Won the Space Race?
For anyone who wants to know who won the space race, check out Edward Ehrenspeck’s book on the subject. It’s an exciting story following the adventures of protagonist Henry. With this book, you will be fully informed and intrigued by this riveting account of the first steps into space.
Grab a copy of “NASA Range Rats: The True Beginnings” from Amazon today! The start of the Space Race
