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The space race is the name given to the competition from 1957 to 1975 between the United States and the Soviet Union to advance in space exploration and technology, most notably in their efforts to land a human being on the Moon and return him to Earth.
The term "space race" was coined by analogy to the arms race, and is considered an important part of the cultural and technological rivalry of the USSR and the U.S. during the Cold War. Space technology was a particularly important arena for this conflict, because of its psychological effects in raising morale and its military applications.
It started after World War II, when the scientists from the V-2 rocket program were absorbed by both the United States and the Soviet Union to work on their national rocketry programs. The U.S. policy of importing German scientists (even those with strong Nazi ties) to prevent the knowledge from falling into the "wrong" hands was known as Operation Paperclip. These scientists formed the core of the U.S. team, led by Wernher von Braun, which began development of ballistic missiles.
By the mid-1950s, both countries announced intentions to include space as part of their plans for the future. As the first satellites and living payloads began launching, the stated goal was scientific advancement. The current interpretation is that both countries were using their space programs to showcase the strength of their ideologies. The Soviets used their early successes to sway undecided countries to join the Eastern Bloc, the USA followed suit.
As of 2004, some people have suggested that another space race is taking place between China and other nations. China announced plans to send a mission to the Moon by 2020. The Bush administration followed suit by proposing a major restructuring of NASA in order to focus on a return trip to the Moon.
Though rockets were of interest to scientists and amateurs since 300 BCE, they were unable to reach altitudes high enough for space travel until the early 20th century. The space race itself is inextricably linked to military ambitions of the countries involved, despite its often scientific character and peaceful rhetoric.
In the mid-1920s, German scientists had begun experimenting with rockets which used liquid propellants capable of reaching relatively high altitudes and distances.A team of amateur rocket engineers had formed the German Rocket Society (VfR) in 1927, and in 1931 launched a liquid propellant rocket (using oxygen and gasoline).
In 1932, the Reichswehr (which in 1935 became the Wehrmacht) began to take interest in rocketry, seeing the possibility of using rockets as long-range artillery fire. The Wehrmacht initially funded the VfR team, but seeing that their focus was strictly scientific, created its own research team. At the behest of military leaders, Wernher von Braun, at the time a young aspiring rocket scientist, joined the military (followed by two former VfR members) and developed long-range weapons for use in World War II by Nazi Germany, notably the A series of rockets, which led to the infamous V-2 rocket (initially called A4).
In 1943, production of the V-2 rocket began. The V-2 had an operational range of 300 km (185 miles) and carried a 1000 kg (2204 pounds) warhead, with an amatol explosive charge. Thousands were fired at various Allied nations, mainly England, as well as Belgium and France. Because of its velocity and angle of attack, the V-2 could not be intercepted, and its effects were devastating, killing 2,754 people in England alone, and wounding another 6,523 until the termination of the launches.
At the end of the war, competing Russian, British, and U.S. military and scientific crews raced to capture technology and trained personnel from the German rocket program at Peenemünde. Russia and Britain had some success, but the United States benefited most, taking a large number of German rocket scientists — many of whom were members of the Nazi party, including von Braun — from Germany to the United States as part of Operation Paperclip. There the same rockets which would have been destined to rain down on Great Britain had the war continued were used by scientists for other uses.
After the war, rockets were used to study high-altitude conditions, by radio telemetry of temperature and pressure of the atmosphere, detection of cosmic rays, and further research continued under von Braun and the others, who were destined to become part of the U.S. scientific complex.
After World War II, the United States and the Soviet Union were locked in a bitter cold war of espionage and propaganda.
Space exploration and satellite technology fed into the cold war on both fronts. Artificial Earth satellites could spy on other countries while space-faring accomplishments could be used as propaganda to tout a country's scientific prowess—and military potential. The same rockets that could send a man in orbit or hit a specific spot on the Moon could send an atom bomb to a specific city of an enemy.
When the Russians launched the Sputnik I satellite in 1957, the United States was highly troubled. This singular event shocked the nation, causing Americans to believe that they might no longer be the most powerful country.
At the time, the notion of the Soviets beating the Americans into space, looking down and watching over America (Sputnik was visible as it passed over America) was extremely frightening. This fear was exacerbated due to Cold War tension.
Once American efforts began in earnest, a race (akin to a "peaceful war") was inevitable. In America, Sputnik was seen as the USA losing out to a scientifically superior USSR.
It spurred a movement to improve scientific education and resulted in an influx of physicists into the American work force and government. It also provoked greater support for expenditures in military funding for scientific research.
The space race served two primary functions for both sides in the Cold War. First, there was an important element of propaganda and publicity to it. Along with other aspects of the arms race (such as the development of nuclear weapons), priority in space was seen as an indicator of technological and economic prowess, which served the function of justifying and proving the superiority of the ideology of the country in question.
Second, pursuing civilian, scientific, and otherwise "peaceful" applications in space allowed for pursuing military goals as well, as much of the technological development required for space travel applied equally well to wartime rockets, such as ICBMs. In other words, space research was a dual-use technology: It could be used for peaceful means, but could also contribute to military goals.
The huge cost associated and bureaucracy needed to organize successful space exploration led to the creation of national and international space agencies. In addition to the achievements of the Unites States and the Soviet Union, many other countries developed their own space programs for scientific, militaristic and nationalistic reasons.
The Russian Aviation and Space Agency (RKA) (in Russian: Российское авиационно-космическое агентство) is the government agency responsible for Russia's space science program and general aerospace research. It was formed after the breakup of the Soviet Union and the dissolution of the Soviet space program.
On July 29, 1958, President Eisenhower signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958 establishing the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). When it began operations on October 1, 1958, NASA consisted mainly of the four laboratories and some 8,000 employees of the government's 46-year-old research agency for aeronautics, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA).
The European Space Research Organisation, also known as ESRO, was established on March 20, 1964, per an agreement signed on June 14, 1962. Although it was officialy an inter-governmental space organization during the space race era, it's achievements were greatly overshadowed by the U.S.-USSR rivalry.
It was succeeded by the European Space Research and Technology Centre, or ESTEC, based in Noordwijk, the Netherlands. The center is still a part of the European Space Agency, which has grown to be a much bigger organisation today.
The European Space Agency in its current form was founded in 1974, when the European Space Research Organisation merged with the European Launcher Development Organisation, or ELDO.
The Centre National d'Études Spatiales (CNES) is the French government space agency (administratively, a "public establishment of industrial and commercial character"). Its headquarters are in central Paris.
The Italian Space Agency (L'Agenzia Spaziale Italiana or ASI) was founded in 1988 to promote, co-ordinate and conduct space activities in Italy.
Operating under the Ministry of the Universities and of Scientific and Technological Research, the agency cooperates with numerous entities active in space technology and with the president of the Council of Ministers. Internationally, the ASI provides Italy's delegation to the Council of the European Space Agency and to its subordinate bodies.
The German Aerospace Center (DLR) (German: Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt e.V.) is the national research center for aviation and space flight of the Federal Republic of Germany and of other member states in the Helmholtz Association.
Its extensive research and development projects are included in national and international cooperative programs. In addition to its research projects, the center is the assigned space agency of Germany bestowing headquarters of German space flight activities and its associates.
Then Indian Space Research Organisation, or ISRO, is India's answer to NASA. The Government of India set up Space Commission and Department of Space (DOS) in June 1972. ISRO runs under DOS. Here is a quote from their web site: http://www.isro.org/ - "The prime objective of ISRO has been to develop space technology and its application to various national tasks. Since 1969, when it was set up, ISRO has established space systems like the INSAT for telecommunication, television broadcasting and meteorological services, and the Indian Remote Sensing Satellites (IRS) for resources monitoring and management. ISRO has also developed the satellite launch vehicles PSLV and GSLV to place these satellites in the required orbits." In recent times, ISRO has emerged as an alternative to NASA or ESRO to launch satellites into space especially for countries who cannot afford to pay the exhorbitant costs of launching satellites on their own.
The Brazilian Space Research Institute (INPE) has intensive research and development in areas such as Earth observation, space sciences and space technologies. Several satellites had been developed and launched.
The technology of the space race involved
The USSR was the undisputed leader in rocketry, even up to the end of the Cold War. The U.S. was superior in electronics, remote sensing, vehicle guidance, and robotic control. Even during the Apollo program, debate continued on the cost-effectiveness of manned space flight, compared to robotic exploration. However the political symbolism of a Man in Space won over robotic exploration. After the end of the Apollo program, robotic exploration has continued to this day.
The U.S. explicitly disclaimed the right to ownership of any part of the Moon, after the successful landings on the Moon.
Sputnik 1, launched by the USSR on October 4, 1957, was the first artificial satellite in orbit.
Sputnik caused fear and stirred political debate in the United States because of its military and economic implications. Before Sputnik, the average American citizen simply assumed that the U.S. was superior in all fields of technology. After Sputnik, a huge effort to regain technological supremacy was launched, even to the extent of revamping the school curriculum of the U.S.
Nearly four months after the first Russian satellite was sent into orbit, the first U.S. satellite was launched. In the interim, there were a number of embarrassing launch failures at Cape Canaveral. But on January 31, 1958, Explorer I discovered the Van Allen radiation belt. More importantly, Explorer I was the first satellite to actually perform a function.
The first communications satellite was Project SCORE, launched December 18, 1958, which relayed a Christmas message from President Eisenhower to the world.
See also:
The first geosynchronous satellite was Syncom-2, launched on July 26, 1963, by the U.S.
The first animals in space were fruit flies launched by the U.S. on captured German V-2 rockets in 1946.
The first animal in orbit, was a dog, Laika, sent up in Sputnik 2 in 1957 by the USSR. She did not return to Earth, because technology was not advanced enough.
The first animals to successfully return from orbit were Russian dogs Belka and Strelka, in 1960. The first animals to fly around the Moon were Soviet turtles on Zond 5.
Yuri Gagarin was the first human to enter orbit, on the Vostok 1, launched by the USSR on April 12, 1961. This day is still a holiday in Russia and other countries from the former USSR, along with some other European and Asian countries.
The first dual manned flight was also launched by the USSR from August 11-15, 1962, and the first flight with more than one crew member was the USSR's Voskhod 1 launched on October 12, 1964, which was also the first flight where the crew did not wear spacesuits.
Valentina Tereshkova was the first woman in space on June 16, 1963, on a flight launched by the USSR.
The first spacewalk was performed by Aleksei Leonov on Voskhod 2, which was launched by the USSR on March 18, 1965.
Though the achievements made by the US and the USSR brought great pride to their respective nations, the space race would continue until the first man walked on the moon.
Luna 1 was the first spacecraft to fly by the moon. It was launched by the USSR on January 4, 1959.
It was also the first artificial satellite of the sun. Its successor, Luna 2, was the first spacecraft on the moon. Luna 3 took the first photos of the far side of the moon on October 7, 1959.
The first soft landing on the moon was by Luna 9, launched by the USSR on February 3, 1966, and the first spacecraft that orbited the moon was Luna 10 on April 3, 1966.
The robotic Surveyor program was part of the effort to determine where it was safe for a man to land on the moon; five of the seven missions attempted were successful, and helped determine where the Apollo astronauts could land.
The first manned orbit of the moon was Apollo 8 by the U.S. on December 27, 1968, and the first human landing on the moon was by Apollo 11 on July 20, 1969.
While the Soviets beat the Americans in most firsts, they did not manage to beat them to the moon.
After so many early Soviet successes, especially Gagarin's flight, President John F. Kennedy was keen to find an American project that could capture the public imagination. The idea of the Apollo program was developed during the Eisenhower administration, but discarded because the President thought the operation was too expensive and had little scientific or military reward.
However, Kennedy seized upon the project as the ideal focus for American efforts in space. He ensured continuing funding, shielding space spending from the 1963 tax cut and diverting money from other NASA projects. This dismayed its leader, James E. Webb, who urged support for scientific work.
In conversation with Webb, Kennedy said:
Whatever was said in private, it was clear that a different message was needed to gain public support. Later in 1963, Kennedy asked Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson to investigate the possible technological and scientific benefits of a moon mission.
For the program to succeed, it would have to defeat criticism from politicians of the left, who wanted money spent on social programs instead; and of the right, who favored a more military project. By emphasising the scientific payoff, and playing on fears of Soviet space dominance, Kennedy and Johnson managed to swing public opinion: by 1965, 58 percent of Americans were in favor of Apollo, up from 33 percent two years earlier.
Once Johnson was President, his continuing defense of the program allowed it to succeed in 1969, as Kennedy had originally hoped.
Meanwhile, the USSR was much more ambivalent about going to the moon. Soviet leader Nikita Krushchev was unwilling to be "defeated" by any other power, but equally unwilling to be drawn into such an expensive project. In October 1963, he said that the USSR was "not at present planning flight by cosmonauts to the moon", though this statement was qualified by his insistence that they had not dropped out of the race. It would be another year before the nation would fully commit to a moon landing attempt.
At the same time, various joint programs had been suggested by Kennedy, including a possible moon landing by Soviet and American astronauts, and the development of better weather-monitoring satellites. Krushchev, sensing an attempt to steal superior Russian space technology, rejected the idea: If the USSR went to the moon, it would go alone.
While unmanned Soviet probes did reach the moon before any American craft, the American Neil Armstrong was the first lunar visitor - an event watched by millions of people around the world. This has become widely recognised as one of the defining moments of the 20th century.
The first spacecraft to fly by Venus was the Mariner 2, sent by the US on December 14, 1962. The first spacecraft to fly by Mars was Mariner 4 launched in 1965 by the US. The first flyby of Jupiter was Pioneer 10, launched in 1973 by the US. The first, and so far only, spacecraft to fly by Mercury was Mariner 10, launched in 1974 by the US. The first flyby of Saturn was Pioneer 11 launched in 1979 by the US. The first and only flybys of Uranus and Neptune were by Voyager 2.
The first spacecraft to land on Venus was the USSR's Venera 7, launched in 1971. It was only one in the long Venera series; several other previous Venera spacecraft performed flyby and attempted landing missions. Seven other Venera landers followed.
The first spacecraft on Mars was Mars 3, also launched in 1971 by the USSR.
The first space rendezvous was between Gemini 6 and Gemini 7, both US craft, on December 15, 1965. Their successor, Gemini 8 performed the first space docking on March 16, 1968. The first automatic space docking, however, was performed by USSR's Cosmos-186 and Cosmos-188 on October 30, 1967.
The first launch from the sea was Scout B, on April 26, 1967 by the US.
The first Space station was Salyut 1, on June 7, 1971 (USSR). The first modular space station was USSR's Mir, in 1986.
Technology and especially aerospace engineering advanced greatly during this period. In the sense that it was contested during the 1960s, the space race is usually considered to have been ended by the joint Apollo-Soyuz mission in 1975.
In the United States, three astronauts for Apollo 1 died in a fire during a ground test on January 27, 1967. They were Command Pilot Virgil Grissom, Senior Pilot Edward White, and Pilot Roger Chaffee.
In 1970, Apollo 13 suffered an in-flight explosion, but the crew returned safely.
The Soviet Union's Soyuz 1 and Soyuz 11 resulted in cosmonaut deaths.
Soyuz 1 was part of the Soviet Union's space program and was launched into orbit on April 23, 1967, carrying a single cosmonaut, Colonel Vladimir Mikhailovich Komarov, who was killed when the spacecraft crashed after return to Earth.
In 1971, Soyuz 11's cosmonauts Georgi Dobrovolski, Viktor Patsayev, and Vladislav Volkov were asphyxiated during re-entry.
Wernher von Braun, who moved to the United States after World War II, became the best known and the most important designer in the NASA space program. His counterpart in the Soviet Union was Sergei Korolev, the chief engineer whose designs included the R-7 rocket which sent Sputnik I into orbit, and the N-1 designed to launch cosmonauts to the Moon.
The Avro team typifies the entire aerospace industry's effort during the space race. California, in particular, hosted this industry; Caltech's Jet Propolsion Laboratory, in the Los Angeles, California area, still manages space missions.
See also: List of spacecraft manufacturers
| Date | First Success | Country | Mission Name |
|---|---|---|---|
| April 12, 1981 | Space shuttle | USA | STS-1 |
| September 11, 1985 | Comet probe | USA | International Cometary Explorer |
The first reusable spacecraft (space shuttle) was launched by the USA, on the 20th anniversary of Gagarin's flight, April 12, 1981. The first (and so far only) automatic reusable spacecraft was Buran, launched by the USSR on November 15, 1988.
After the space race between the U.S. and Soviet union ended in 1975, the commercial prospects and national pride associated with space programs spread to many other countries.
The Brazilian Space Agency, founded in 1994, directs one of the youngest space programs. Brazil's space program is the most advanced in South America. So far, it has been unsuccessful in launching rockets, suffering a major setback in 2003 due to a rocket explosion. Its primary launch site is at Alcantara.
The Canadian Space Agency (CSA or, in French, the ASC) is the government department responsible for Canada's space programme.
It was established in March 1989 by the Canadian Space Agency Act and sanctioned in December 1990. The agency is led by its president, who reports to the minister of Industry.
The China National Space Administration is the civilian agency in the People's Republic of China that is responsible for national space policy. The agency was created in 1993 when the Ministry of Aerospace Industry was split in two, with the other part being the China Aerospace Corp.
The Japan Aerospace eXploration Agency, or JAXA, is Japan's aerospace agency. It was formed October 1, 2003, by the merger of NASDA, the National Aerospace Laboratory of Japan and the Institute of Space and Aeronautical Science.
The second major "space race" was to run the first commercial trips into orbit. On April 28, 2001 Dennis Tito became the first fee-paying space tourist when he visited the International Space Station.
In recent times there have been numerous companies looking into the viability of sending further tourists into space, realising the potential for a whole new area of tourism. However, since the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster of February 1st, 2003 both public and commercial interest has lessened, concerned over the safety of space flight.
In 2003, with the successful manned space flight of Shenzhou 5 on behalf of the People's Republic of China, there has been speculation of a new space race with the United States considering creating a permanent base on the Moon, a manned mission to Mars, or both.
The Ansari X Prize, a competition for private suborbital spaceships, has also been called the new space race.
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