The Space Race

1
The Space Race

• A History of the Race to Space.

2
How it Began

• For more than a decade the Soviet Union and
  United States were in competition to be the first
  to make it to space.
• It all began in 1957 when the Soviets launched
  the first satellite, Sputnik, into space. The
  Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev and the American
  presidents Dwight Eisenhower, John Kennedy,
  Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon all agreed that
  conquering outer space was very important. Both
  countries wanted to prove their scientific
  superiority and to show their military strength.
• The Soviets wanted to prove communist technology
  was superior and the US wanted to be the first to
  the moon. Speaking about the prospect of sending
  astronauts to the moon in 1961, Kennedy said, "No
  single space project in this period will be more
  impressive to mankind, or more important for the
  long-range exploration of space. And none will be
  so difficult or expensive to accomplish."

3
German Contributions

• In the mid-1920s, German scientists began
  experimenting with rockets powered by liquid
  propellants that were capable of reaching high
  altitudes and distances. In 1932, the Reichswehr,
  predecessor of the Wehrmacht, took an interest in
  rocketry for long-range artillary fire. Werner
  Von Braun, an aspiring rocket scientist, joined
  the effort and developed such weapons for Nazi
  Germanys use in World War II.
• The German A-4 Rocket, launched in 1942, became
  the first projectile to reach space. In 1943,
  Germany began production of its successor, the
  V-2 rocket, with a range of 185 miles and
  carrying a 2200 lb warhead. The Wehrmacht fired
  thousands of V-2s at Allied nations, causing
  massive damage and loss of life. However, more
  laborers were killed in the production of V2s
  than were killed by them in attacks.
• As World War II was ending, Soviet, British, and
  American military and scientific crews raced to
  capture technology and trained personnel from the
  German rocket program installation at Peenemunde.
  The USSR and Britain had some success, but the
  United States benefited most, taking a large
  number of German rocket scientists, many of them
  members of the Nazi Party, including von Braun
  from Germany to the United States as part of
  Operation Paperclip.

4
Sputnik is Launched

• On October 4th, 1957, the USSR successfully
  launched Sputnik, the first artificial satellite
  to orbit the Earth, and the Space Race began.
  Sputnik caused fear and stirred political debate
  in the United States.
• The American public, initially discouraged and
  frightened by Sputnik, became captivated by the
  American projects which followed. Schoolchildren
  followed the launches, and building model rockets
  became a popular hobby. President Kennedy gave
  speeches encouraging people to support the space
  program and trying to overcome the skepticism of
  many who felt the millions of dollars might
  better go on building stocks of proven, existing
  weapons, or on fighting poverty.
• Nearly four months after the launch of Sputnik 1,
  the U.S. launched its first
  satellite, Explorer 1. In the
  meantime, a number of embarrassing launch
  failures had occurred at Cape
  Canaveral.
• The very first satellites were already used for
  scientific purposes. Both
  Sputnik and Explorer 1 were launched as part of
  each country's participation in the International
  Geophysical Year. Sputnik helped to determine the
  density of the upper atmosphere and Explorer 1
  flight data led to the discovery by James Van
  Allen of the Van Allen Radiation Belt.

5
Animals in Space

• Dogs launched by the U.S. on captured German V-2
  rockets in 1946 became the first animals sent
  into space for scientific study. The first living
  creature sent into orbit, the dog Laika, traveled
  in the USSR's Sputnik 2 in 1957. While no
  technology existed at the time to recover Laika
  after her flight, she died of stress and
  overheating soon after reaching space. In 1960
  Russian space dogs Belka and Strelka orbited the
  earth and successfully returned. NASA imported
  chimpanzees from Africa, and sent at least two
  into space before launching their first human
  orbiter. Soviet-launched turtles in 1968 on Zond
  5 and became the first animals to fly around the
  Moon.

6
First Humans in Space

• The Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the
  first human in space when he entered orbit in
  Russia's Vostok 1 on April 12, 1961, a day now
  celebrated as a holiday in Russia and in many
  other countries. 23 days later, on mission
  Freedom 7, Alan Shepard first entered sub-orbital
  space for the U.S. John Glenn, in Friendship 7,
  became the first American to successfully orbit
  Earth, completing three orbits on February 20,
  1962.
• Soviet Valentina Tereshkova became the first
  woman in space on June 16, 1963 in Vostok 6. The
  Soviets had initially scheduled further Vostok
  missions of longer duration, but after the
  announcement of the Apollo Program, Premier
  Khrushchev demanded more firsts. The first flight
  with more than one crew member, the USSR's
  Voskhod 1, a modified version of the Vostok
  craft, took off on October 12, 1964 carrying
  Komarov, Feoktistov and Yegorov onboard. This
  flight also marked the first occasion on which a
  crew did not wear spacesuits.
• Aleksei Leonov, from Voskhod 2, launched by the
  USSR on March 18, 1965, carried out the first
  spacewalk. This mission nearly ended in disaster
  Leonov almost failed to return to the capsule
  and, due to a poor retrorocket fire, the ship
  landed 1000 miles (1600 km) off target. By this
  time Khrushchev had left office and the new
  Soviet leadership would not commit to an all-out
  effort.

7
Lunar Missions

• Unmanned Probes
• Following the Soviet success in placing the first
  satellite into orbit, the Americans focused their
  efforts on sending a probe to the Moon. They
  called the first attempt to do this the Pioneer
  Program. The Soviet Luna program became
  operational with the launch of Luna 1 on January
  4th, 1959, and Luna 1 became the first probe to
  reach the Moon. In addition to the Pioneer
  program, there were three specific American
  programs the Ranger program, the Lunar Orbiter
  program, and the robotic Surveyor program, with
  the goal of locating potential Apollo landing
  sites on the Moon.

8
Lunar Missions

• In conversation with NASAs director, James E.
  Webb, Kennedy said
• Everything we do ought to really be tied in to
  getting on to the Moon ahead of the Russians...
  otherwise we shouldn't be spending that kind of
  money, because I'm not interested in space... The
  only justification (for the cost) is because we
  hope to beat the USSR to demonstrate that instead
  of being behind by a couple of years, by God, we
  passed them.
• While unmanned Soviet probes had reached the Moon
  before any U.S. craft, American Neil Armstrong
  became the first person to set foot on the lunar
  surface on July 21, 1969, after landing the
  previous day. Commander of the Apollo 11 mission,
  Armstrong received backup from command-module
  pilot Michael Collins and lunar-module pilot Buzz
  Aldrin in an event watched by over 500 million
  people around the world. Social commentators
  widely recognize the lunar landing as one of the
  defining moments of the 20th century, and
  Armstrong's words on his first touching the
  Moon's surface became similarly memorable

9
Missions to Other Planets

• The Soviet Union first sent planetary probes to
  both Venus and Mars in 1960. The first spacecraft
  to successfully fly by Venus, the U.S.'s Mariner
  2, did so on December 14, 1962. It sent back
  surprising data on the high surface temperature
  and air density of Venus. Since it carried no
  cameras, its findings did not capture public
  attention as did images from space probes, which
  far exceeded the capacity of astronomers'
  Earth-based telescopes.
• The USSR's Venera 7, launched in 1971, became the
  first craft to land on Venus. Venera 9 then
  transmitted the first pictures from the surface
  of another planet. These represent only two in
  the long Venera series several other previous
  Venera spacecraft performed flyby operations and
  attempted landing missions. Seven other Venera
  landers followed.
• The US launched Mariner 10, which flew by Venus
  on its way to Mercury, in 1974. It became the
  first, and so far the only, spacecraft to fly by
  Mercury.
• Mariner 4, launched in 1965 by the U.S., became
  the first probe to fly by Mars it transmitted
  completely unexpected images. The first
  spacecraft on Mars, Mars 3, launched in 1971 by
  the USSR, did not return pictures. The US Viking
  landers of 1976 transmitted the first such
  pictures.
• The U.S also sent Pioneer 10 on a successful
  flyby of Jupiter in 1973. This foreshadowed the
  first flyby of Saturn in 1979 with Pioneer 11,
  and the first and only flybys of Uranus and
  Neptune with Voyager 2.