The Space Race

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Recommended: Technological advancements during the Cold War

The United States and Russia were advancing throughout the Cold War, and a major advancement was the exploration. Sciences were exponential during the 1950s, and both countries were rivals which expelled the competition to the moon. It involved the efforts to explore outer space with artificial satellites, to send humans into space, and to land them on the Moon. Both countries were exponentially at growth with nuclear powers. “The sense of a "race" was largely abandoned by both sides, further space exploration by both countries continued, but without the Cold War fervor over which society was the most technologically advanced” (Veve). After World War II the Soviet Union and the United States realized how important rocket research would be in the military. The cold war was a rivalry that led to a buildup of arms, both nations developed extensive nuclear weapons programs. There was fear in which the other would harbor over the world and the fear was in full force when space travel began. The United States and the Soviets made nuclear rockets to test there capability in traveling half way around the world, they were known as intercontinental ballistic missiles, or ICBMs. The nuclear rockets began the technology advancement in NASA program (Evans). The space exploration was a distraction from nuclear war and weapons. The space race raised cold war tensions, and made the United States work harder for success against the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union launched a surprise missile the "Sputnik" on October 4, 1957, to orbit the Earth meanwhile initiating the competition between the two countries. Both countries had a large amount of explorations throughout the race, the history of the space race rivalry started from World War II and which ...

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.... Kennedy and the Two Faces of the U.S. Space Program, 1961-63. W. D. Kay.
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Man on the Moon: The U.S. Space Program as a Cold War Maneuver. Rita G. Koman. OAH
Magazine of History, Vol. 8, No. 2, Rethinking the Cold War (Winter, 1994), pp. 42-50. JSTOR.
Robinson, Peter. "space race." In Winkler, Allan M., Charlene Mires, and Gary B. Nash, eds.
Encyclopedia of American History: Postwar United States, 1946 to 1968, Revised Edition (Volume IX). New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2010. American History Online. Facts On File, Inc.
"Space Race." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 05 Apr. 2014. Web. 03 May 2014.
Veve, Thomas D. "space race." American History. ABC-CLIO, 2014. Web. 4 May 2014.
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