The Space Race to the Moon

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).

Using the V-2 rocket technology that could reach the speed of nearly 3500mph, both sides rushed to find the brilliant scientists behind the rockets technology. The race to space was very important during this time because of the Cold War era and they used satellites to spy on one another. Both countries were strong military wise and it was an equal match but to prove who’s the strongest the race to space began. One thing that helped build a space rocket was a V-2 rocket built by the Germans during WWII. Throughout the years the V-2 rocket turned into the Saturn V rocket.

The political, social, and economic changes impacted the relationship between the two countries. Many of the issues began when they took the fight to space to see who had the best technology, military firepower, and stronger social, political, and economic systems. Politics was the main point, over science, in Americas point of view of the Space Race, but to the Soviets it was Science over everything. The Space Race was a giant step into the United States winning the Cold War.

Finally in October 1957, the USSR launched Sputnik into space. Thus began years of rivalry for control of outer space called the Space Race. This paper seeks to answer the question of which country won the Space Race. The answer to the question of who won the Space Race might be controversial, and it all depends on who you ask the question.It is an understanding that “mankind’s access to new frontiers has always been a major factor in in the future success of societies that exploited the opportunities when they arose ”(Richardson). The United States was obsessed with space technology flexing its muscles at acquiring more arsenals albeit to expand supremacy.

15 Apr. 2014. http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/apollo/index.html. Website Harland, David M. Exploring the Moon: The Apollo Expeditions. London: Springer, 1999. Print.

Apollo 11 On October 4, 1957 the Soviet Union, our chief rival the in Civil War, launched the worlds first satellite, the Sputnik 1 (Piddock, Zissou). Scared the Soviet Union would gain control of space; President John F. Kennedy met with NASA to discuss putting a man on the moon (Piddock, Zissou). The Apollo 11 mission wasn’t just the first lunar-landing attempt: it was a giant step for mankind that came with various consequences (SV; SV). In the NASA meeting Kennedy stated, “Whatever the cost, we must get a man on the moon before the soviets. There’s nothing more important” (Piddock, Zissou).

The Cold War, a time of political opposition, was the key cause that generated the race to space. For years the US and the USSR competed to be number one in rocketry and spaceflight. Although they battled mainly for land, space became a precarious area to dominate. It was serious to get ahead, and in October of 1957, Russia launched Sputnik 1 into space. To America, it was a time of fear.

Thesis: The race into space changed the course of history; the scientific exploration united nations and captivated the world. “Vergeltungswaffe zwei” was the designation given to Adolf Hitler’s principal long-range warhead. Long before the Americans and Soviets initiated their pursuit of space, the Germans had ambitions of their own. The “German Army Ordnance,” in fact, toiled tirelessly constructing rocket-like missiles before the Second World War. Hitler and the Nazis believed that the capability to attack strategic foreign objectives in a concise period of time would cripple their counterparts and ordain the Germans unstoppable (“Space Race Exhibition” 1).

Web. 02 Mar. 2014.

- NASA Science. NASA, 23 Feb. 2001. Web. 01 May 2014. Than, Ker.