Why was the space race considered a part of the Cold War and what were some of the significant events of the Space Race that took place between the United States and the Soviets?
Space travel was not a new concept in the 1960’s, with many Americans aware of the government funding technology to take American’s to space in the 1950’s (Sage, 2014) . Yet when the Russians launched a space craft called Sputnik into space in 1957, before America and had success launching anything, Americans began to panic. American’s had believed that Russia was incapable of creating new technology on its own, and it was only through theft of technology did they advance (Sage, 2014). This launch into space contradicted that long held belief, and now showed Americans that for once, they were actually behind the Russians in creating new technologies. This advancement of Russia’s demonstrated that a communist nation could be on the cutting edge of technology, leaving America behind. The question of how Russia had advanced ahead of America forced the American government to look at their education system and make changes to once again be competitive with a strong emphasis on math and science put into place (Sage, 2014) . Congress also created National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to centralize efforts in space exploration, and to catch up with the Russians (Sage, 2014) . With Kennedy’s election, came the administrations promise to have a man on the moon and returning him home safely by the end of the decade, a promise that America was not sure how to make come true at that time (Sage, 2014) . With the help of German V- rocket scientist and an talented aviation community, the program began but early on a fire killed 3 astronauts (Sage, 2014). When American started having successful launches into space, on of the missions, Apollo 13, was damaged and almost lost her crew (Sage, 2014). In July 1969 Astronauts Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong were the first men to land on the moon, a the first of seven missions to the moon, and America over came the Russians once again (Sage, 2014) .
References:
Sage, H. (2014). America Goes to the Moon. Retrieved 28 January 2020, from https://content.umuc.edu/file/0190804d-7b9f-4d96-805e-0deec56246a5/1/Post_World_War_II_Domestic_Part_2.pdf
Sage, H. (2014). The Space Race. Retrieved 28 January 2020, from https://content.umuc.edu/file/0190804d-7b9f-4d96-805e-0deec56246a5/1/Post_World_War_II_Domestic_Part_2.pdf