On October 4, 1957, a Soviet R-7 intercontinental ballistic missile launched Sputnik (Russian for “traveler”), the world’s first artificial satellite and the first man-made object to be placed into the Earth’s orbit. Sputnik’s launch came as a surprise, and not a pleasant one, to most Americans.
In 1958, the U.S. launched its own satellite, Explorer I, designed by the U.S. Army under the direction of rocket scientist Wernher von Braun. That same year, President Dwight Eisenhower signed a public order creating the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), a federal agency dedicated to space exploration.
In 1959, the Soviet space program launch of Luna 2, the first space probe to hit the moon. In April 1961, the Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first person to orbit Earth, traveling in the capsule-like spacecraft Vostok 1.
The US catching up in 1962, had John Glenn became the first American to orbit Earth,
When John F. Kennedy became President of the United States in January 1961, many Americans perceived that the United States was losing the Space Race with the Soviet Union, which had successfully launched the first artificial satellite, Sputnik 1,
Convinced of the political need for an achievement which would decisively demonstrate America’s space superiority, Kennedy asked his Vice President, Lyndon B. Johnson, in his role as Chairman of the National Aeronautics and Space Council, to identify such an achievement. He specifically asked him to investigate whether the United States could beat the Soviet Union in putting a laboratory in space, or orbiting a man around the Moon, or landing a man on the Moon, and to find out what such a project would cost. Johnson consulted with officials of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Its new Administrator, James E. Webb, told him that there was no chance of beating the Russians to launching a space station, and it was uncertain as to whether NASA could orbit a man around the Moon first, so the best option would be to attempt to land a man on the Moon.
Kennedy stood before Congress on May 25, 1961, and proposed that the US “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.” Not everyone was impressed; a Gallup Poll indicated that 58 per cent of Americans were opposed.
On September 12, 1962, President Kennedy delivered his speech before a crowd of 40,000 people in the Rice University football stadium. Receive validation from the people
December 1968 saw the launch of Apollo 8, the first manned space mission to orbit the moon.
On July 16, 1969, U.S. astronauts Neil Armstrong, Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin and Michael Collins set off on the Apollo 11 space mission, the first lunar landing attempt. After landing successfully on July 20, Armstrong became the first man to walk on the moon’s surface; he famously called the moment “one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”
One reading from our class that relates to the space race is The Circle. I think that this book relates to the Space Race because they both adress revolutionary ideas for the current time. The Circle is a modern version of this phenomenon. Many people saw their business concept as revolutionary similar to how the people during the 1960’s saw the Space Race as revolutionary. There is even more overlap between the two examples as both revolutionary ideas received some push back and was not widely accepted. As mentioned in the writing above, not all US citizens were too keen about the space race and did not see it as a priority. Similarly, many people in the book were against the Circle and its technology.
Works Cited:
Eggers, Dave. The Circle. 1st edition, Vintage Books, 2014.
NASA. “President Kennedy’s Speech at Rice University.” Youtube, 18 May. 2013. https://youtu.be/WZyRbnpGyzQ