History Behind The 20th Century Space Exploration: The Space Race

“Space, the final frontier.” These lines from the movie Star Trek have always brought curiosity and excitement to the human species. Are we truly alone in this dark and cold universe? What lies beyond the moon and the solar system? Can the human race go out of their home planet and venture further? These are the question that man will continue to keep on asking in the years to come.

It all started during the Cold War rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union, for the contest in space flight supremacy which was dubbed “Space Race”. Events following the World War II which saw the victory of the Allied Nations and the USSR against the NAZI and Axis Powers, spoils of war were taken by the USA and Russia. The most notable technological loot was the German missile technology that such dominance in this technology was seen as a threat that needed national security. Using this technology, Russia and the USA began to create artificial satellites and unmanned probes and sent them to outer space in low earth orbit an to the moon.

On October 4, 1957, Russia was the first to prove its supremacy in by launching the Sputnik I. it was the first ever man-made satellite to orbit the earth. While everyone thought that a living creature would not survive in space, Russia was again bold enough to do to the unthinkable. It launched a tiny spacecraft into orbit on November 3, 1957. This spacecraft carried Laika, the first ever space-dog, into space and became the first animal in space to completely orbit the Earth. The scientists and engineers knew that Laika would not survive the harsh environment of outer space but this experiment gave proof that humans will be able to survive the extreme g-force which is experience when a space shuttle is launched into space. Finally, Russia was ready to launch a human into space. Russian Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin made history as the first man in space when he went into Earth Orbit on April 12, 1961. During this point, almost everyone thought that the space race was finally won by the USSR. The United States of America had other things in mind.

July 16, 1961, The Apollo 11 successfully was launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida with the help of a Saturn V rocket. After a four day journey, Commander Neil Armstrong and lunar module pilot Buzz Aldrin finally landed on the moon. Armstrong became the first person to step on the lunar surface and his speech echoed throughout history. Upon landing on the moon and walking on it, the commander said these inspiring words, “A small step for man, a giant leap for mankind”. This event finally ended the space race between the two powerful countries. The astronauts spent almost 3 hours collecting lunar material and journeyed back to Earth after 21 hours spent on the lunar surface. The crew successfully landed in the Pacific Ocean on July 24, 1961.

With the successful landing on the moon in 1961, the US remained supreme in space exploration. As time passed, technology began to grow rapidly. This brought about the creation of better and stronger space crafts which were used to launch several astronauts and cosmonauts into space. Soon, other countries such as Japan and China started their own space expeditions. This prompted the US to create a space station, a geo-synchronous spacecraft which orbited the Earth which can be used as a docking station for space crafts where astronauts can stay for a long period of time. In 1998, 5 countries worked together to launch the first module for the International Space Station, these countries are Russia, USA, European Space Agency, Japan, and Canada. Until this day, the ISS is still being improved to support other space agencies and to perform experiments concerning the outer space.

We humans may only be a small dot in this vast universe, but we continue to strive to gain knowledge on what is out there beyond our own world. We will still continue to venture and explore worlds beyond our solar system. And maybe, in the future, we will find and finally realize that we are not alone.