Cold War: The Space Race

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During the start of the Cold War in 1945, the United States and the Soviet Union were seen as great superpowers. The U.S. and the U.S.S.R. strived to beat the other at just about everything. During the arms race, when both countries spend mass amounts of money to create atomic weaponry, the Soviet was able to unexpectedly surprise the United States. On October, 1957, they had launched the first satellite into space, titled Sputnik 1. It was not until they launched a dog and then a human up into space that the U.S felt extremely inferior. After the successful launch of Explorer I and the establishment of NASA, the Space Race was on. Skipping to present day, our society has been greatly impacted by the Space Race. The ambitious competition with …show more content…

Being able to send people up into space was an extraordinary influential event for mankind. It told us that there were whole new worlds and concepts out there ready to be explored. The fundamentals of the solar system led us to discover more about the gravitational pull of the sun and other planets, which has helped aid us in launching probes and even setting the course for the International Space Station. Fundamentals like microbial life on Mars and the exotic environments of planets and moons have driven space exploration to a whole new level. In addition, due to space telescopes, we have learned new things that we had never heard nor seen about. The things that we have seen in space like supernovas, the creation of stars, and things like black holes have driven us farther and farther into space. In conclusion, as long as man has curiosity, there will be no end to what we will uncover in space. For this reason, this is why the Space Race was so important. It kicked started a chain of events that will have mankind exploring more of …show more content…

A huge turning point in our culture was seeing pictures of Earth for the first time from space. Some may argue that seeing our planet alone in space impacted our thoughts and connections to the natural world and the understanding of mankind. This has lead us to learn even more about Earth and Space. In addition, modern technologies have also impacted our culture. For example, space satellites give us pictures of the weather on Earth, which helps scientists predict the weather. GPS’s also uses satellites to locate where you are and where you need to go. Satellite based internet is still in use today, and there are mobile satellite companies. Satellites television is also still used to watch channels. Satellites also act as telescopes to see far into space. The military even owns spy satellites. The Space Race has also influenced movies, games, and books. Even though the thought of intelligent extraterrestrial out in space has been around even before the Space Race, ever since then, more movies and books have had have featured aliens or space themes to attract readers. Some examples are Marvel Comics, Star Wars, and Star Trek. The theme of space has also impacted games. Early games like Space Invaders revolutionized the gaming industry. The concept of Space also greatly appealed to the younger audience at the time. The idea of the unknown coupled with imagination made it

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