Space Race

The race for the moon was instrumental in the United States emerging to the forefront of technology. Military applications of the “Space Race” were the catalyst for civilian applications of space technologies that the United States became the leader for. The United States and the Soviet Union were involved in a competition for over a ten year period. The space race had begun in 1957 when the Soviet Union launched the first artificial satellite, Sputnik. The American presidents Dwight Eisenhower, John Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon, along with the soviet leader of that time period all agreed that conquering outer space was a very important factor in that time period. Both countries wanted to win to prove their scientific superiority and to show their military strengths on there end and to basically proved one was better than the other. Soviet Premier Khrushchev wanted to show that communist technology was superior. President Kennedy wanted to beat the Soviets 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." He was referring to the mission to space and what it would be like if we explored the outer world. To go some place where no one else has gone would be a great deal of history. In the book, “Epic Rivalry: The Inside Story of the Soviet and American Space Race”, it was dually noted that the successful launch of the V-2 arguably signaled the advent of a new rocket technology. The competition of the V-2 rocket set the stage for the epic rivalry that would shape the course of the new space age.

      There are a number of events leading up to the Americans first walking on the moon. For starters in 1957 the Soviet Union launched Sputnik which was the first artificial Earth satellite. The launch of the Sputnik...