History of the Space Race: The battle for the Final Frontier
What was the Space Race and how did it unfold? Learn how the US and the Soviet Union competed to be the first country to put a man on the Moon.
Image: Earthrise, as seen from Apollo 8, 24th December 1968 | Public Domain
The United States and the Soviet Union were allies during World War II, helping to defeat the Axis powers of Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy. However, as the war ended, a new rivalry between nations began taking shape.
As Germany lay in ruins, the US and the USSR (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics) were already courting German rocket engineers and scientists.
Germany’s rocket technology assets were highly prized due to the country’s world leadership in this field during the war. Both the US and the Soviet Union recruited valuable personnel who would prove instrumental in the soon-ensuing Space Race.
What was the Space Race?
The term ‘Space Race’ might immediately bring to your mind the Apollo 11 spaceflight in 1969. Indeed, astronaut Neil Armstrong’s status as ‘the first man on the Moon’ has been emphasised to successive generations of schoolchildren since.
The Apollo 11 mission itself, where Buzz Aldrin stepped onto the Moon’s surface shortly after Armstrong, was the climax of the Space Race. It also earned the United States major bragging rights — but did it win them the Space Race?
Some historians would beg to differ. By 1969, the Soviets had actually scored a string of successes over the Yanks in the competition over which side could conquer outer space first.
How did the Space Race begin?
The US fired the starting gun for the Space Race on 30th July 1955, unveiling an exciting plan to launch artificial satellites.
The Soviet Union quickly countered that it would also soon launch one, which turned out to be Sputnik 1. It entered an elliptical low Earth orbit (LEO) on 4th October 1957, making history as the first artificial Earth satellite.
This breakthrough took many Americans by surprise. It also stoked fears that the Soviets could one day use their apparent edge in rocket and satellite technology to threaten US national security. This was, after all, the age of the Cold War.
The Soviets build up an early lead
Only a month after its Sputnik 1 success, the USSR repeated the trick with Sputnik 2. This was the first spacecraft to send an animal (in this instance, a dog called Laika) into Earth orbit.
Striving to supercharge its space exploration efforts, the US set up the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) on 28th July 1958.
Nonetheless, for some time, pole position in the Space Race belonged to the Soviet Union — the first country to launch a human into space. This happened on 12th April 1961, when Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin completed one orbit around Earth.
The Americans close the gap
On 5th May 1961, the United States’ Freedom 7 space capsule launched with Navy Commander Alan Bartlett Shepard Jr on board. This made him the first American in space — and revived confidence in the US space program.
The US president at the time, John F Kennedy, spoke to a special joint session of Congress later that month. He declared that 'this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon'.
Kennedy’s words were wonderfully prescient, but he didn’t live to see his ambitious vision come true. In one of US history’s most tragic episodes, Kennedy was assassinated on 22nd November 1963 in Dallas, Texas.
The Space Race winds down
On 20th July 1969, Neil Armstrong proclaimed 'one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind'. Such was the historical significance of the Moon landing, it took much of the impetus out of the Space Race.
The first person to drive on the Moon was David Scott on 1st August 1971. Before leaving the Moon, he left a plaque paying tribute to US astronauts and Soviet cosmonauts who had died in attempts to explore space.
These included American astronauts Roger Chaffee, Gus Grissom and Ed White, who were killed by a fire on their Apollo 1 capsule in 1967. That same year, Soviet cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov died due to a parachute failure as he returned to Earth.
In the 1970s, the US and the USSR began to collaborate on space exploration projects, as typified by the first Apollo-Soyuz mission.
Today, the US still pursues space activities, but Russia (the USSR’s successor state) shows no interest in taking humans to the Moon.
Instead, private companies led by Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos have become major players in spaceflight. Astrophysicist Sarah Cruddas remarks that 'as in the past of exploration on Earth, governments have gone first and private industry has followed'.
