Space Race

The Space Race was a competition of space exploration between the United States and Soviet Union, which lasted roughly from 1957 to 1975. It involved the efforts to explore outer space with artificial satellites, to send humans into space, and to land people on the Moon.
Though its roots lie in early rocket technology and in the international tensions following World War II, the Space Race effectively began after the Soviet launch of Sputnik 1 on 4 October 1957. The term originated as an analogy to the arms race. The Space Race became an important part of the cultural, technological, and ideological rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War. Space technology became a particularly important arena in this conflict, both because of its potential military applications and due to the morale-boosting psychological benefits

Background

Rockets have interested scientists and amateurs for centuries. The Chinese used them as weapons as early as the 11th century, and simple but inaccurate iron rockets were common ship and land based weapons by the 19th century. Russian scientist Konstantin Tsiolkovsky (1857-1935) theorized in the 1880s on multi-stage, liquid fuel rockets which might reach space and established the basics of rocket science; his 'Rocket Equation', which determines flight velocity, is still used in the design of modern rockets today. Tsiolkovsky also wrote the first theoretical description of a man-made satellite. However, not until 1926 did the American Robert Goddard design a practical liquid fuel rocket.
Goddard performed his work on rocketry in general obscurity, as the scientific community, the public, and even The New York Times scoffed at him. It took war to catapult rocketry to notoriety. This proved a harbinger for the future, as any "space race" would become inextricably linked to military ambitions of the nations involved, despite its mostly scientific character and peaceful rhetoric.

German contributions

In the mid-1920s, German scientists began experimenting with rockets powered by liquid propellants that were capable of reaching relatively high altitudes and distances. In 1932, the Reichswehr, predecessor of the Wehrmacht, took an interest in rocketry for long-range artillery fire. Wernher von Braun, an aspiring rocket scientist, joined the effort and developed such weapons for Nazi Germany's use in World War II. Von Braun borrowed heavily from Robert Goddard's original research, studying and improving on Goddard's rockets.
The German A-4 Rocket, launched in 1942, became the first such projectile to reach space. In 1943, Germany began production of its successor, the V-2 rocket, with a range of 300 km (185 mi) and carrying a 1000 kg (2200 lb) warhead. The Wehrmacht fired thousands of V-2s at Allied nations, causing massive damage and loss of life. V2s were even more deadly for the slave laborers forced to produce them, more died making them at Mittelbau Dora Concentration Camp than were killed with the attacks.[1][2]
As World War II drew to a close, U.S., U.K. and S.U. military and scientific crews raced to capture technology and trained personnel from the German rocket program installation at Peenemünde. The United Kingdom and the Soviet Union had some success, but the United States arguably benefited most, taking a large number of German rocket scientists – many of them members of the Nazi Party, including von Braun – from Germany to the United States as part of Operation Paperclip. American scientists adapted the German rockets – for use against hostile nations; and other uses. Post-war scientists, including von Braun, turned to rockets to study high-altitude conditions of temperature and pressure of the atmosphere, cosmic rays, and other topics.

Cold War roots

After World War II, the United States and the Soviet Union became locked in a bitter Cold War of espionage and propaganda. Space exploration and satellite technology could feed into the Cold War on both fronts. Satellite-borne equipment could spy on other countries, while space-faring accomplishments could serve as propaganda to tout a country's scientific prowess and military potential. The same rockets that might send a human into orbit or hit a specific spot on the Moon could send an atom bomb to a specific enemy city. Much of the technological development required for space travel applied equally well to wartime rockets such as Intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs). Along with other aspects of the arms race, progress in space appeared as an indicator of technological and economic prowess, demonstrating the superiority of the ideology of that country. Space research had a dual purpose: it could serve peaceful ends, but could also contribute to military goals.
The two superpowers each worked to gain an edge in space research, neither knowing who might make a breakthrough first. They had each laid the groundwork for a race to space, and awaited only the starter's gun

On 4 October 1957, the Soviet Union successfully launched Sputnik 1, the first artificial satellite to orbit the Earth, thus beginning the Space Race.[3] Because of its military and economic implications, Sputnik caused fear and stirred political debate in the United States, spurring the Eisenhower administration to enact several initiatives, including the formation of NASA. At the same time, the Sputnik launch was seen in the Soviet Union as an important sign of scientific and engineering capabilities of the nation.
In the Soviet Union the launch of Sputnik and the following program of space exploration was met with great interest from the public. For the country recently recovered from devastating war it was important and encouraging to see the proof of technical prowess in the new era.
Before Sputnik, the average American assumed that the United States had superiority in all fields of technology. In response to Sputnik, the United States would launch a huge effort to regain technological supremacy, including revamping the school curricula. It took the Soviet achievement of lifting into space a 184 pound communications satellite -- followed within a month by sending up a half ton rocket carrying a live dog -- to arouse the United States to large-scale legislative action. Within less than a year, Congress passed, and President Eisenhower signed, the National Defense Education Act, the most far-reaching federally-sponsored education initiative in the nation's history. The bill authorized expenditures of more than $1 billion for a wide range of reforms including new school construction, fellowships and loans to encourage promising students to seek higher education, new efforts in vocational education to meet critical manpower shortages in the defense industry, and a host of other programs.[4] This reaction is nowadays known as the Sputnik crisis.
As with the Soviet public, the American public followed the succession of launches, and building replicas of rockets became a popular hobby.[citation needed]

Animals in space

Main article: Animals in space
Fruit flies launched by the United States on captured German V-2 rockets in 1946 became the first reported animals sent into space for scientific study. The first animal sent into orbit, the dog Laika (in English, "Barker"), traveled in the Soviet Union's Sputnik 2 in 1957. She died of stress and overheating soon after reaching space. In 1960 Soviet space dogs Belka and Strelka orbited the earth and successfully returned. The American space program imported chimpanzees from Africa, and sent at least two into space before launching their first human orbiter. The Soviet Union launched turtles in 1968 on Zond 5 became the first animals to fly around the Moon.

Humans in space

The Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human in space when he entered orbit in the Soviet Union's Vostok 1 on April 12, 1961, a day now celebrated as a holiday in Russia and in many other countries. He orbited the Earth for 108 Minutes. 23 days later, on mission Freedom 7, Alan Shepard first entered sub-orbital space for the United States, and John Glenn, in Friendship 7, became the first American to successfully orbit Earth, completing three orbits on February 20, 1962.
The first dual-manned flights also originated in the Soviet Union, August 11 - 15, 1962. Soviet Valentina Tereshkova became the first woman in space on June 16, 1963 in Vostok 6. Korolev had initially scheduled further Vostok missions of longer duration, but following the announcement of the Apollo Program, Premier Khrushchev demanded more firsts. The first flight with more than one crew member, the Soviet Union's Voskhod 1, a modified version of the Vostok craft, took off on October 12, 1964 carrying Komarov, Feoktistov and Yegorov. This flight also marked the first occasion on which a crew did not wear spacesuits.
Aleksei Leonov, from Voskhod 2, launched by the Soviet Union on March 18, 1965, carried out the first spacewalk. This mission nearly ended in disaster; Leonov almost failed to return to the capsule and, due to a poor retrorocket fire, the ship landed 1000 miles (1600 km) off target. By this time Khrushchev had left office and the new Soviet leadership would not commit to an all-out lunar landing effort.