The Space Race

The Space Race

The Space Race is a very important topic in American history. The Space Race started because of wanting bragging rights basically. The two countries USSR and America were in a race to get to space. It ended up being a race to the moon, and everyone knows what happened then.

The first artificial satellite in space was sputnik one. It was launched on October 4th, 1957 into a low elliptical earth orbit by the Soviet Union. Sputnik one did not do much more than send out a beeping noise that could be heard on CB radios. Besides just sending out radio signals it also helped to identify the layers of the atmosphere's density and it would tell the first signs of a meteor. Sputnik one was a two stage rocket. It was launched from site number one at the fifth tyuratam range in Kazakh, SSR. People in America at the time heard about the launch of sputnik one and that sparked an outburst called the sputnik crisis. People in America were astonished by the launch of this satellite and wanted to get something of their own in space. The signals from sputnik one continued for twenty two days. After three months in orbit of planet earth, on January 4th, 1958 the mission stopped and at that time the sputnik satellite had completed one thousand four hundred and forty orbits at about ninety six point two minutes each it ended in one thousand and four hundred and forty orbits. It burned up in earth's atmosphere after falling back to earth after the transmitter batteries ran out. This was the first artificial satellite in space and the Soviet Union thought that they had won the space race but this was only the beginning.

The first man in space was Colonel Yuri (or Alekseyevich) Gagarin. He was born on March 9th, 1934. He was a pilot in the soviet air force before he was a cosmonaut for the soviet space program. He participated in the first mission to send a man to outer space. The mission was named Vostock one. The first manned vessel that was sent to space, launched on April 12th, 1961. And the Soviet Union had another win under their belt in the space race. In being the first human to go into outer space, Yuri also became the first human to orbit the earth. Yuri's flight lasted one hour and forty eight minutes. When he returned to earth he had these words to say, "The feeling of weightlessness was somewhat unfamiliar compared with Earth conditions. Here, you feel as if you were hanging in a horizontal position in straps. You feel as if you are suspended". Yuri also said that he hummed the tune of a patriotic song called "The Motherland Hears, The Motherland Knows". Some rumors about the flight include one claiming that Yuri made the comment, "I don't see any God up here.", but none of those words appear in the recording of his conversations with on earth communication centers. After his return to earth Yuri was a huge celebrity around the world. He was showered with medals and honors for his achievements in making it to space. Sadly at the age of only 34 he died on March 27th, 1968. From a plane crash in a MiG fifteen, training jet.

The Apollo missions were a big part in the space race for America. The goal of the Apollo missions was to land an American man on the moon. JFK announced this goal in his "to the moon speech. The Apollo program was thought of in 1960 during the Eisenhower presidency, but came into effect in 1961 during the JFK presidency. One reason the Apollo program was started is that the Soviet Union's space program had already sent a man into space and into low earth orbit. Many Americans believed that America needed to stay ahead in the space race against the Soviet Union. In the Apollo missions the first goal was to get a group of Americans around the moon, sort of like a lunar orbit the first mission Apollo one had a problem. A cabin fire broke out in a pure oxygen environment during the rehearsal test on January 27th, 1967. The fire killed all three people that were planned to do the flight on the 21st of February .the three astronauts were Virgil I. "Gus" Grissom, Edward White, and Roger B. Chaffee. Apollo four was an unmanned mission used to demonstrate the S-IVB third stage rocket and tested the cm heat shield for the trips to the moon when they would come back to see if the lunar transportation device could withstand the heat on reentry from the moon the earth. In Apollo five it was an unmanned mission that successfully fired both the exit and reentry engines. Apollo six was used to clear Saturn five for man use. Apollo seven was the first us successful eleven day flight. The three men Walter M "wally" Schirra, Donn Eisele, and Walter Cunningham launched on October 11th, 1968 into an earth orbit but this was also the first high earth orbit unlike what the soviets had done a low earth orbit. In Apollo eight