Space Race

Cold War competition between the United States and the Soviet Union to gain technological superiority and achieve historic firsts in the field of space flight and exploration. The space race served political goals as well as scientific ones. The superpowers viewed their accomplishments in the space race as a public measure of the relative strengths of the capitalist and communist systems. Beyond that, the competition for superiority in outer space rapidly accelerated development of many areas of high technology that have since become an integral part of modern society, most notably computers and telecommunications.

Sputnik and Explorer

The beginning of the space race traditionally dates to the launch of the Soviet Sputnik satellite on October 4, 1957. The Sputnik was the first artificial satellite placed into Earth's orbit by humans. However, both the United States and Soviet Union had been working seriously on the problem of space flight since the end of World War II. The defeated Germans had made significant progress in this area during the war, developing the world's first ballistic missile, the V-2 rocket.

After the war, both sides scrambled to acquire the services of as many former German rocket scientists as possible. The United States seemed to fare much better in this effort, capturing the head of the V-2 program, Dr. Werner von Braun, and many of his top assistants. Yet, despite this head start, work on a U.S. rocket capable of leaving the earth's atmosphere was slow and filled with setbacks. Meanwhile, the Soviets were making steady progress that eluded the notice of U.S. intelligence services. The Sputnik announcement shocked and stunned the United States. The Soviet Union not only had managed to launch a rocket into outer space, it had also successfully placed a satellite into Earth orbit. By contrast, the U.S. space program was marked by a series of spectacular failures, as several rockets exploded on or shortly after launch. These failures appeared to be an indictment of the relative weakness of U.S. science education. In the wake of the Sputnik launch, U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower spearheaded a movement to place greater emphasis on teaching science in American schools.

In December 1957, the Soviets launched a second Sputnik satellite into orbit, this one carrying a live dog, named Laika. The move seemed to confirm the total Soviet dominance in the space race. The United States, however, was not willing to concede defeat so easily. On January 31, 1958, a Mercury Redstone rocket carried the first U.S. satellite, Explorer I, into orbit. On its flight, Explorer I discovered the Van Allen radiation belt that surrounds Earth. This marked the first practical use of an orbiting satellite; neither Sputnik had performed any scientific functions.

The success of Explorer I brought renewed confidence to the U.S. space program and served notice that both sides were willing to devote substantial economic and political resources to the space race. Later that year, the United States authorized the establishment of a separate government agency—the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)—to coordinate the nation's space exploration efforts. The race for space had begun in earnest.

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