The+Race+to+Space

=__RACE TO SPACE__= //﻿ // //"I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth. No single space project...will be more exciting, or more impressive to mankind, or more important...and none will be so difficult or expensive to accomplish...." - John F. Kennedy //

The Space Race refers to the competition between the United States and the Soviet Union between 1957 and 1975, involving their efforts to explore space with satellites and to eventually land a human being on the Moon and return him to Earth. The race to space was is defined as a competition between two or more states, international organizations, or nongovernmental organizations to advance in space exploration and technology. Though it began in early rocket technology and in the international tensions following World War II, the Space Race effectively began with the Soviet launch of the first artificial satellite Sputnik in 1957. The term was was used as an analogy to the arms race. The Space Race became an important part of the cultural and technological rivalry between the USSR and the U.S. during the Cold War. Space technology was a particularly important arena in this conflict, both because of its military applications and due to the psychological benefit of raising morale (See Figure 1). //"The cold war would become the great engine, the supreme catalyst, that sent rockets and their cargoes far above Earth and worlds away. If Tsiolkovsky, Oberth, Goddard, and others were the fathers of rocketry, the competition between capitalism and communism was its midwife."// William E. Burrows, This New Ocean, "The Other World Series", p. 147

__Influence On The Cold War__

__Influential People__

Neil Armstrong:

Buzz Aldrin:

Yuri Gagarin:

Robert R. Gilruth Wernher Von Braun Christopher Kraft George Low Thomas O. Paine Samuel C. Phillips || Sergey Korolyov Vladimir Chelomey Vasily Mishin Nikolai Kamanin Valentin Glushko ||
 * ~ Commanders and Leaders ||
 * James E. Webb

Figure 1: Timeline (1957-1975)
(Reference: "Space Race - Timeline." Dictionary, Encyclopedia and Thesaurus - WordIQ Dictionary. Web. 07 Jan. 2011. .)
 * ~ Date ||~ First Success ||~ Country ||~ Mission Name ||
 * 1946 || Animal in space (fruit flies) || USA || V2 ||
 * August 21 1957 || ICBM || USSR || R-7/SS-6 Sapwood ||
 * October 4 1957 || Artificial satellite || USSR || Sputnik 1 ||
 * November 3 1957 || Animal in orbit (dog) || USSR || Sputnik 2 ||
 * January 31 1958 || Detection of Van Allen belts || USA || Explorer I ||
 * December 18 1958 || Communications satellite || USA || Project SCORE ||
 * September 14 1959 || Probe to Moon || USSR || Luna 2 ||
 * February 17 1959 || Weather satellite || USA || Vanguard 2 ||
 * August 7 1959 || Photo of Earth from space || USA || Explorer 6 ||
 * August 18 1960 || Reconnaissance satellite || USA || KH-1 9009 ||
 * April 12 1961 || Human in orbit || USSR || Vostok 1 ||
 * March 18 1965 || Extra-vehicular activity || USSR || Voskhod 2 ||
 * December 15 1965 || Orbital rendezvous || USA || Gemini 6A/Gemini 7 ||
 * March 1 1966 || Probe to another planet || USSR || Venera 3 ||
 * July 21 1969 || Human on the Moon || USA || Apollo 11 ||
 * April 23 1971 || Space station || USSR || Salyut 1 ||
 * July 15 1975 || First U.S.-USSR joint mission || USSR and USA || -Soyuz Test Project ||

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