History: The Space Race

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The Space Race was a race involving the Soviet Union and the U.S which was a race to be the first in space. They wanted supremacy of space and the first on the moon a little into the race. This race started after WW2 when both realized that rockets were important in military combat. The Space Race was a time of new discoveries but also a time of hardship and failure. The Space Race included many great accomplishments and discoveries that would not have happened if it were not for the race. The U.S successfully launched explorer 1 on January 31, 1958 (Dawn of the Space Age). "Soviets Luna 2 reached the moon's surface, and on October 4, Luna 3 had a flyby and photographed most of the moons far side" (Space Race timeline). This shows that the …show more content…

The first man in space was not without its flaws, nearly the end of the orbit, the ship began to spin out of control for about 10 minutes and it had everybody scared that it might fall and hey destroyed with the rider in it (PBS Space Race Timeline). "On April 24, 1967 Cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov is killed when the parachute of his Soyuz 1 capsule fails to open properly following re-entry" (Timeline of Space Exploration). This shows that though there were many great things about the space race there were still many flaws that accompanied the explorations. Even though these were not a big problem when this was going on since it was not mentioned as much it is still good to point out the flaws in one of our best moments in history. During a practice session on January 27, 1967 there was a fire in the Apollo 1 which killed the prime crew of the ship (Apollo 1 NASA history). The Soviet Union had a missile they were about to test out but it ended exploding on the launch pad and 126 people were horrifically burned alive and this was the biggest space catastrophe ever (Soviet horrific space launch). These also show that even though the space race was a good thing it also involves a lot of things. Also mistakes that were made that we have learned from and now won't make in future space related things. All these …show more content…

"Sputnik caught everybody's and the U.S was placed off-guard because they feared if they can launch a rocket than they can launch a big missile" (The Dawn of the Space Age). In October 1692 tension rose when an American Aircraft flew over Cuba and photographed soviet nuclear missile sites under construction just 90 miles from the U.S coast. The U.S had a similar base so they had to make a compromise to stop construction and move the stuff somewhere else so that a nuclear war won't break out (Space Race Timeline). This shows that the space race was a time where everybody was skeptical about one another and they all had an eye on each other to see what the next move would be. They feared for their own safety and also wanted to stay informed on what the opposing side is doing. In 1974 the US and the Soviet made plans to bring weapons into space ranging from cannons to laser guns and they managed to test them on a targeted satellite and it was a success and aimed them at several American spacecraft but never attacked (Space Race Timeline). On July 1975 the U.S and Soviet Union embarked on the first joint space adventure together (Space Race Timeline). The Soviets and U.S were always against each other and wanted to one up one another but in the end they eventually made amends with each other and that was a great time for everybody because they could finally rest and not worry about the other doing

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