The Soviet/American Space Race
- The space race was a competition between the Soviet Union and the United States that started August 2, 1955, and was an overall competition to see which country was superior in spaceflight.
- The Soviet Union began winning the race when they launched Sputnik 1 October 4, 1957, which was the first satellite to ever orbit the planet. This caused the United States to panic because they thought that if the Soviets had the upper hand in space travel, it would mean they could soon develop satellite-based missiles and possibly attack the country. To retaliate, the U.S. launched their first satellite, Explorer 1, in 1958 and also created the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA for short).
- The Soviets continued to achieve a standing victory in the Space Race by launching the first lunar probe, Luna 2, in 1959 and sending the first man,Yuri Gagarin, orbiting around the earth in 1961. The very next year, U.S. President John F. Kennedy proclaimed that America will be the first country to send a man to the moon, and thus began the creation on Project Apollo.
- Project Apollo at first created a setback for the United States, as three astronauts were killed during a launch simulation on January, 1967. The project, however, did gain a better footing in the race when NASA launched the Apollo 8, the first manned orbit to the moon, on December, 1968.
- The United States eventually did end up landing a man on the moon with the mission Apollo 11 on July 20, 1969. While many saw this as America proving its spaceflight superiority to the Soviet Union, it is still up to historical debate as to which side truly won the Space Race.