The Space Race

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Recommended: International relations during the cold war

September 2, 1945, the two most powerful nations in the world broke into a war of pride and power, known as the Cold War. The Soviet Union and the United States battled fiercely for a reputation that would be venerated for ages to come. Aggressively, these two nations pushed to be the greatest in the world through politics, weapons, and science. These actions and attitudes significantly promoted the need for space exploration, and soon fueled a pursuit that altered history forever.

The space race had many motivations and many things that kept the competition going. One of the main motivations was for military security. To have power in the world these countries needed to have missiles and rockets that could go higher, faster, and farther than their countries. These rivals needed to place themselves in space to have dominance over one another. They could potentially have orbital weapon systems, be able to intercept and inspect communications of their enemies, possible military use for the moon. These things motivated the military part of the space race.

The next incentive for the space race was for peace. Some wanted to partner with other space programs so they could use space as a peaceful tool than use for war. They emphasized peace significantly, so they could use space and the moon for scientific purposes.

Another inspiration is the progression of science and technology. Those who strived for space had a desire for knowledge of this vast space of unknown. Scientists wanted man to be put in space for the purpose of discovery and science. Some scientist were angry and criticized the space program whenever it diverted from this motivation. These extraterrestrial discoveries could possibly bring new technology and benefit s...

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...r. America had to catch up to the Soviets now, they were getting to far ahead and beating them to many achievements. NASA then launched Apollo 8 on December 21, 1968. Apollo 8 was the first human spaceflight mission to leave Earth's orbit, the first to be captured by and escape from the gravity field of something other than Earth, and the first crewed voyage to return to Earth from the Moon. The crew of Apollo 8 consisted of Frank Borman, James Lovell, and William Anders. They became the first humans to personally see the far side of the Moon as well as the first humans to see Earth from a higher orbit. Since the Apollo 8 was successful, NASA felt confident enough to send 3 men to the moon on the multi-manned spacecraft, Apollo 11.

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