The Space Race: One of The Greatest Achievements of Mankind

Mankind has experienced many periods wherein science and technology have progressed significantly in time with certain world events. One of the most significant and influential of these, which eventually ended with bringing the first people to the Moon, was the Space Race.

Cold War Race

The Space Race was basically one big competition between the US and the former Soviet Union that pitted the nations against each other in their advancements in aeronautics and space travel, including sending satellites, probes, and ultimately human beings into space. It was a large part of the Cold War going on between these two countries, wherein they attempted to one-up each other in all aspects of development due to differences in their government’s beliefs, with the US favoring a capitalistic and democratic approach while the Soviets favored a communist regime. The Cold War was a manifestation of the power struggle and the arms race that occurred after the end of the Second World War between the two largest powers of the time.

It ultimately started when the Sputnik I, the first artificial satellite, was launched by the Soviets in 1957, with follow-up launches of Sputniks II and III within the next two years. Sputnik I represented not only an advancement in space travel but was also a show of military might, as this satellite was also a Soviet R-7 intercontinental ballistic missile. The American Eisenhower administration bred a sense of anxiety that the Soviets were quickly surpassing the US in advancements and that the nation was in danger of being overwhelmed by a nuclear warhead that might make its way through US airspace.

Bringing People to Space

In response to this, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), which continues to this day, was established in 1958 as the agency responsible for advancing space research and aeronautics, especially with the civilian space program. In December of that same year, they assimilated California Institute of Technology’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. In terms of the development of space technology for military defense, the Advanced Research Projects Agency was also formed. That year saw the launch of the US-made Explorer I, created under the direction of Wernher von Braun, a rocket scientist. Then a year later, the Soviet space program managed to send the first space probe to crash into the moon, the Luna 2.

Both NASA and the Soviet’s space program both had the goal to bring a human being off of the Earth’s surface and out into its orbit. The Soviets were the first to achieve this, with Yuri Gagarin entering the Earth’s orbit in 1961 in the Vostok I, a spacecraft meant to be manned by a single person. Alan Shepard for the US followed suit about a month later, traveling around Earth in a 15-minute suborbital journey, and John Glenn achieved Gagarin’s level of orbit in 1962.

The Apollo Victory

The Apollo program was finally announced by John F. Kennedy in order to fulfill the dream of being the nation that brought the first man on the Moon, and the administration promised they would get this done by the end of the 1960s, according to Khan Academy.org. The program made NASA’s budget increase by 500% from the years 1961 to 1964. They employed about 34 thousand people to the NASA program and had about 375 thousand industrial and university contractors. As explained by History.com, there were several setbacks throughout the decade, such as the death of three astronauts during a launch simulation from NASA, and the death of the Soviet’s chief space engineer, Sergey Korolyov, that created internal struggles on the Soviets’ side.

Ultimately, however, the US was able to reach its goal in December of 1968, when Apollo 8 launched and was the first to orbit the moon. In July of 1969, the Apollo 11 space mission launched with   Neil Armstrong, Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin and Michael Collins performing the first lunar landing on the 20th of July. The space race was “won” that day by the Americans.

Other Contributions

Another strategy done by the US Congress was to pass the National Defense Education Act (NDEA) in order to redirect more funding to the education of math and sciences. They believed that by improving public education in these areas, it would ultimately lead to improved national security as educated graduates would help lead the way to more technological discoveries and advancements.

Composed of about ten titles, the bill allowed for education to improve by giving $800 million in loans to college students and educators in the different states. Many of the titles addressed different issues such as the improving on public education programs, providing college funds to deserving students, and even funding for the education of foreign languages such as Mandarin and Russian.

Though government interest in space exploration has waned after the space race era, these achievements symbolize the power of human beings to achieve greater heights and reach the stars. Hopefully, space travel will reach a level where not only astronauts but also regular people will be able to easily traverse the stars.