The Space Race

Background

The Space Race was a fierce competition between the United States and the Soviet Union to establish superiority in space exploration. The two nations wanted to demonstrate their technological prowess and earn the prestige that came with achieving milestones in a field previously thought of as science fiction.

The Space Race was also a byproduct of the Cold War’s struggle for political and nuclear supremacy, with the US and the Soviet Union both desperate to ensure that the other would not gain a military advantage through space technology.

The race begins

In October 1957, the Soviet Union put the first human-made satellite—dubbed Sputnik—into orbit around the Earth. This landmark accomplishment shook US complacency about its technological superiority, in part due to concerns about the power of the Soviet missile technology that made Sputnik possible.

A month later, the Soviets put the first animal into orbit—a dog named Laika—in the first of many experiments aimed at studying how space flight could be made safe for humans.

US political figures were alarmed to see the Soviets seize the initiative on space exploration and immediately launched hearings exploring opportunities associated with spaceflight and related technologies. In July 1958, President Dwight Eisenhower signed a law creating NASA.

On April 12, 1961, the Soviet Union secured another milestone when cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human to reach space and orbit the Earth. Twenty-three days later, Navy test pilot Alan Shepard became the first American to reach space. And John Glenn became the first American to orbit the Earth in February 1962. The US space program was catching up.

A man on the moon

In 1961, President John Kennedy announced the US goal of landing a man on the moon, effectively kicking off the Apollo space program. Over the next 12 years, the $25.8B program experienced both advances and serious setbacks, including the death of three astronauts in 1967.

On July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong became the first to set foot on the moon—famously describing the achievement as “one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” The landing was broadcast to more than 650 million television viewers around the world, including an estimated 93% of the US population.

In the eyes of many observers, the Space Race was over, with the landing representing a US victory over the Soviet Union (see overview).

Some historians argue the real end of the Space Race came in 1975 when a US Apollo spacecraft docked with a Soviet Soyuz spacecraft. The Apollo-Soyuz Test Project allowed astronauts and cosmonauts to conduct joint experiments and served as an important step forward for international cooperation on space exploration.

The Space Race legacy

The Space Race was a defining feature of the Cold War, but it also changed the way we view the universe. The creation of NASA ultimately led to the creation of space telescopes, the Chandra X-ray Observatory, and the Mars rovers that continue to expand our understanding of space, stars, and our own solar system.

But the Space Race also changed life here on Earth. NASA’s drive to solve space exploration challenges is responsible for a host of technologies we use every day, from camera phones and portable computers to GPS devices and wireless headphones.