Space Race (1955-1975)

CONTENTS

1. Introduction

2. The Space Race between the USA and USSR
2.1 Prehistory of the race
2.2 Head to head race.

3. America wants to catch up
3.1 The birth of the National Aeronautics and Space n Administration (NASA)...
3.2 America faces a major challenge (Apollo).

4. The Winner

5. Benefits for mankind

6. Conclusion.

7. Attachment.

8. Sources

Introduction

Many children dream of being astronauts and traveling to space. Many hopeless romantics look at the sky in the evening, count the stars and think about how beautiful the moon and sun is. But does anyone ever wonder what's happening up there? Or what are the conditions like? How did the children start dreaming of such thoughts? What are the reasons why humanity started discovering space? And does it have any advantages for us? Or is it just a political game between two great powers? In my research work I am going to try to answer these questions.

After World War II, it did not take long for a new conflict to begin, which occurred between the world’s two greatest powers. The democratic, capitalist United States and the communist Soviet Union. The battle was known as The Cold War (1947-1991). Neither country fought directly in an open fight. They used many different places to demonstrate their great power, to show their opponent what kind of weapons they have. Starting with the Berlin Blockade (1948-1949), the Vietnam War (1956-1975) and The Cuban Missile Crisis 1962, until the last crisis occurred during the 1983 NATO exercise. The conflict did not just remain on Earth. In the late 1950s, Space was a new dramatic theater in the Cold War for this Power showing off race. Both countries tried to overcome the achievements of the other, which was called the Space Race.

At the beginning I will explain how this cooption started and what the reasons were. The leadership was for the Russians, so they were more successful in the beginning, therefore I will write about the achievements they had before the United States joined this race. But the United States wasn’t satisfied with being behind in the “game”, so they decided to set up NASA space exploration and they challenged themselves with one of the biggest projects that had great success in the late 1960s and these are my fourth and fifth points that I want to discuss. Thereafter I will investigate whether there was a winner in the end or not. Lastly, I will show the benefits of these races, because thanks to it, there are many new useful inventions and developments that have made our lives easier.

2. The Space Race between the USA and USSR

2.1 prehistory of the race

Adolf Hitler's dream was to have one of the most powerful rockets that could deliver an atomic bomb to his enemies. So, in the last years of the Second World War, the German government commissioned a team of rocket scientists led by Wernher von Braun (PFA 1)¹ to develop and launch the V-2 rocket (PFA 2). The task of such missiles is to transport huge explosives. These missiles were able to bomb London from the Baltic Sea. They can be started from both fixed stations and mobile launch sites. In any case, this dream would not have come true because missile technology was not as developed and he did not have enough time for such a big dream. Not only did late times and undeveloped technology stand in the way of realizing Hitler's dream, but his scientists also betrayed him when von Braun persuaded his team to surrender to the US Army. The team started working on a missile program for the US. Not only America had a piece of the cake. After WW2 the Soviet Union arrested some German rocket scientists and brought them to Russia to launch a rocket program. The Soviets team was led by rocket designer Sergei Korolev (PFA 3). Both scientists and their colleagues (captive Nazi scientists, American scientists and Soviet scientists) were held responsible for the development of rocket technologies and the establishment of space programs for the respective country².

2.2 head to head race

The race officially started on August 2, 1955, when the Soviet Union announced its intention to launch a satellite in the near future. This statement was in response to the same intention of the American³. In October 1957, the Soviet Union surprised the whole world when the Soviet missile R-7 intercontinental ballistic launched Sputnik I (PFA 4) (Russian for "traveler").⁴ The world's first artificial satellite was 184 pounds, 22.5 inches. It managed to orbit once every 96 minutes. Sputnik I sent 21 radio signals before it exploded in the atmosphere. It wasn't long before the Soviets sent another Sputnik II (PFA 5) on November 3. The 1,000-pound satellite orbited 162 days with a female dog (PFA 6) (Laika). After a few failures, the United States was finally able to send the first American satellite to orbit Earth. Explorer I (PFA 7) on January 31⁵. But they could not celebrate this great success without being disturbed by the Soviets successes as the Soviets had sent the third Sputnik III⁶ (PFA 8) satellite in May of the same year. In 1958, both countries launched a new space program. Due to the new American program, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed a public order creating the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), a federal agency dedicated to space exploration. The Mercury project was NASA's first step into space. Seven astronauts were deployed to begin training on the Mercury spacecraft. The Soviet Vostok project, however, was not much more different than the American one. Their main goal was to send the first man into space and orbit the earth⁷.

At the time, the Soviets were still ahead when they were the first to put a man-made machine on the moon "Lunik II". Shortly afterwards, one of the famous photos of the moon was taken by the USSR when they sent Lunik III in 1959 to take a picture of the dark side of the moon (PFA 9). While the Mercury project was unable to launch its first spaceship. In 1961 the Vostok program managed to turn Yuri Gagarin (PFA 10) into a hero. When Vostok I was used to send him into space, it made him the first man in space and the first to orbit the earth in 108 minutes. However, the American didn't stand still and do nothing. They had many successes outside of the mercury program as producing the first image of the earth (PFA 11) and sending the first American creature (Tow Monkeys) into space⁸. Nevertheless, they finally had success with the project when they launched Mercury III or Freedom 7 into space, which was commanded by Alan Shepard (PFA 12), who became the first American in space on May 5. His trip took only 15 minutes, so not comparable to Gagarin's trip, but still America got back on the racetrack⁹. In 1962 The U.S.S.R wasn’t the only country who managed to let a human to orbit the earth anymore, as America had sent John Glenn who managed to do this task followed by Gordon Cooper who orbited the Earth 22 times aboard Faith 7. When the American were celebrating that accomplishment, the Soviets worked in space more than all the American Flight put together. They ended the Vostok program with Vostok 6 that carried the first woman “Valentina Tereshkova” to space to orbit the earth 48 time on 1963¹⁰. The idea of the spacewalk only came about when the Soviet cosmonaut Alexi Leonov achieved a spacewalk of twelve minutes and nine seconds, followed by an American astronaut a few months later. This was the last major event of the Soviets, which is why they didn't stay first at the top in the following years¹¹.

3. America wants to catch up

3.1 The birth of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

In 1958, the President of the United States, Dwight D. Eisenhower, founded three organizations to develop space exploration. The first was led by the U.S. Air Force. Which had the main task of developing the military power in space. The second was shared between the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the Air Force, and the National Reconnaissance Office (the existence of which was kept secret until the early 1990s), code-named Corona. They worked to collect information about the USSR and its allies using orbiting satellites. The best-known organization to everyone is the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). This federal agency was / is specialized in space research¹². As mentioned earlier, NASA's first program was the Mercury project in 1958-1963. In December of the founding year of NASA, it started a project with the California Institute of Technology and founded NASA-JPL with the proposal to develop the operated Jet Propulsion Laboratory. All previous successes have been achieved by NASA. However, the biggest challenge for NASA was to land a man on the moon. To this end, the two projects started, the Apollo project and the Gemini project¹³. America started to catch up very quickly. Because of the Gemini project, they managed to build the first spacecraft to carry more than one astronaut at the same time, and this spacecraft was able to change orbits. Another great achievement was that they were the first to dock on space ships in space, and the astronauts could travel to space and live on Gemini’s spaceships for a week. All these successes and researches were important for the development of the technology required for the big goal being the moon landing. At that time and after many failures, the Soviets, who had no interest in traveling to the moon anymore, began sending unmanned cosmos and animals into space to gather information about Earth's orbit and life in space. This Gemini project was stopped in 1966, leaving a lot of knowledge and giving America the courage to achieve its goal of reaching the moon¹⁴.

3.2 America faces a major challenge (Apollo)

On May 25, 1961, the U.S. President unveiled the new challenge that America, and particularly NASA, would have to face. He announced that America would place its first human footprint on the moon before the end of the decade. So J.F. Kennedy inaugurated the Apollo program to lead this mission. On September 12, the world famous moon speech was given by the American President John. F. Kennedy, who said: ‘’ We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too’’ ¹⁵.

Apollo’s first trip to space had stated, but unfortunately, it ended catastrophically when Apollo 1 caught huge fire on Jan. 27, 1967, during a launch rehearsal test, and all three astronauts died (PFA 13). But they didn’t let that event disturb them from moving on with their missions. One year later on Oct. 11. 1968 the Apollo sent its first astronauts for eleven days to space on a Saturn rocket that carried the Apollo 7. Only two month later the Apollo 8 mission orbited the moon. Thereafter, the Apollo 10 was the first mission to get very close to the moon’s surface but it didn’t land, only 50,000 feet separated the Americans from their big goal¹⁶.

[...]

¹ PFA= please find Attachment. 1= Number 1

² Cf. FREUDENRICH, CRAIG: https://science.howstuffworks.com/space-race1.htm [22.04.2020-22:42]

³ Cf. Space Race.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Race (November 20, 2019). [22.04.2020-23:40]

⁴ Cf. The Space Race. https://www.history.com/topics/cold-war/space-race. (February 22, 2010). [22.04.2020-23:55]

⁵ Cf. The Space Race, https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/moon-space-race/ [23.04.2020-00:27]

⁶ Cf. The start of the Space Race ,https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/us-history/postwarera/1950s-america/a/the-start-of-the-space-race [25.04.2020-14:29]

⁷ Cf. FREUDENRICH, CRAIG: https://science.howstuffworks.com/space-race2.htm [25.04.2020-15:11]

⁸ Cf. https://www.space.com/4422-timeline-50-years-spaceflight.html [26.04.2020-22:45]

⁹ Cf. FREUDENRICH, CRAIG: https://science.howstuffworks.com/space-race2.htm [26.04.2020- 23:25]

¹⁰ Cf. FREUDENRICH, CRAIG: https://science.howstuffworks.com/space-race2.htm [26.04.2020-23:48]

¹¹ Cf. Simple History: The Space Race (1955-1975). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvaEvCNZymo.(November 14.2016). [27.04.2020-00:13]

¹² Cf. The Space Race. https://www.history.com/topics/cold-war/space-race.(February 22, 2010). [04.05.2020-23:06]

¹³ Cf. Simple History: The Space Race (1955-1975). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvaEvCNZymo.(November 14.2016). [04.05.2020-23:48]

¹⁴ Cf. FREUDENRICH, CRAIG: https://science.howstuffworks.com/space-race3.htm [05.05.2020-00:13]

¹⁵ Cf. The Space Race, https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/moon-space-race/, [05.05.2020-08:49]

¹⁶ Cf. Freudenrich, CRAIG: https://science.howstuffworks.com/space-race3.htm,[05.05.2020-10:25]