Space Race

The Space Race was a competition between the two Superpowers the United States, and
the Soviet Union in the campaign of the exploration of outer space. The technological dominance
required for the campaign to outer space was seen as a necessary requirement for each nation's
national security. Another reason for the competition was to showcase ideological supremacy
over the competition. The Space Race consisted of the United States, and The Soviet Union
commencing efforts in an attempt to efforts to launch artificial satellites, unmanned probes of the
Moon, Venus, and Mars, and human spaceflight in low Earth orbit and to the Moon. The
competition began on August 2, 1955, when the Soviet Union responded to the US
announcement four days earlier of intent to launch artificial satellites for the International
Geophysical Year, by declaring they would also launch a satellite "in the near future". The Soviet
Union beat the US to this, with the October 4, 1957 launch of Sputnik 1. The Space Race peaked
with the July 20, 1969, US landing of the first humans on the Moon with Apollo 11.
The competition between the Soviet Union and the United states went both ways with
both countries advancing in the race for the exploration of outer space, but the United States had
come away with an win, albeit a miniscule one, The United States lost the race to put a satellite
in space, and to launch the first human into space, but the loss lit a fire underneath their space
program. The United States had lost prestige after the Russians accomplished more in the early
stage of the space race, but the US had progressed more in the space race then it was believed to.
When the Soviet Union launched their satellite the US had the ability and technology to launch
their own, but their leaders focused elsewhere. This led to the United States president John F
Kennedy asking his personal advisors what they could do to beat the Russians, which in turn led
him to the idea of landing the first humans onto the moon. They chose this option because
landing a human onto the moon would be tough to top, with the next closest planet being Mars.
In conclusion although the United States weren't the first to launch a satellite into space or the
first to launch a human into space, they landed a man onto the moon, which would be neigh
impossible to top in that time frame.
Sources:

The Space Race. (n.d.). Retrieved January 19, 2015, from

http://www.coldwar.org/articles/60s/space_race.asp

History in Focus. (n.d.). Retrieved January 19, 2015, from

http://www.history.ac.uk/ihr/Focus/cold/articles/godwin.html

Dunbar, B. (2008, May 19). United States-Soviet Space Cooperation during the
Cold War. Retrieved January 19, 2015, from
http://www.nasa.gov/50th/50th_magazine/coldWarCoOp.html