Research Paper
Philip Bechthold
Period 3B
Mrs. Holan
The Space Race
The Space Race as it is commonly known was between the United States and the Soviet Union, two World War 2 allied countries that competed to send mankind to the moon. Capitalizing on the German accomplishments and technological advances in rocket science during the war, the United States and the Soviet Union both sought top German minds to head up their respective programs. The official space race began August 2nd 1955 when the United States declared that they would soon send artificial satellites into earth's atmosphere. The Soviet’s responded in kind their intention to beat the United States to space.
The Key Players
In the United States, each of the branches of the military had their own competing rocket programs, yet the only successful program was that of the United States Air Force. In 1950, Wernher Magnus Maximilian Freiherr Von Braun, or Von Braun for short, was a former German rocket scientist who fled to the United States after the war along with 1500 other German scientists, who took charge of the Air Forces program research for the MX-774 which was a failed program, finally in 1955 the MX-1593, a new project, received priority funding as it was the most successful. This new rocket would live on to become the Atlas-A and Atlas-D rockets.
The Soviet program was run by Sergei Korolev and built upon the German rocket center Peenemunde in eastern Germany which became part of the Soviet Union after the war. In addition to Korolev, known as “The Chief Designer”, the Soviets forced over 170 captured German scientists to assist the Soviets in their rocket program. These captured scientists did not participate in the final rocket designs as they were only used to assist in the building and production of the rocket's engines. With the help of the German scientists the Soviets were able to reverse engineer the German A-4 rocket and construct their own vessel which was named the R-1.
Race to Space
After the successful tests and launches of the United States and Soviet Union’s rockets it was time to launch their satellites into space. The Soviets were clearly ahead of the game when on October 4th, 1957 the Soviets used their R-7 rocket to send Sputnik, the world's first artificial satellite into space. Sputnik was a small shiny globe the size of a beach ball that only weighed approximately 184lbs. It orbited the earth in roughly 98 minutes, and after it had shut down it had an inactive flight time of 92 days.
The United State’s first satellite launch was a highly anticipated event and was broadcast live in front of the whole nation. Moments after takeoff, however, the rocket unfortunately exploded, leaving serious doubts about the U.S’s ability to catch the Soviets. The media and the public had called the failed attempt numerous names such as flopnik and dudnik. Nearly four months after the launch of sputnik the United States had successfully launched their first satellite, Explorer 1 which was about 30lbs. After this President Dwight D. Eisenhower recommended a government funded civilian agency for spaceflight to congress which led to the creation of NASA.
The Soviet Union took another great leap in the space race by surprising the world when they launched Yuri Gagarin into space. Yuri Gagarin the first man in space was in the Soviet air force after graduating technical school in 1955. In 1960 he and 19 other Soviet air force men were selected for the space program. Yuri was selected by the rest of the 19 other future cosmonauts unanimously to be sent into space on the vostok 1 which was the rocket that took him to space.
Alan Shepard was the first American in space, although he did not achieve orbit like his fellow rival Yuri Gagarin, he was the first person to manually command his vehicle in space, as Yuri never got the chance. Soon after Alan Shepard's return to earth from space, newly elected President John F. Kennedy proposed that we beat the Soviets in sending a man to the moon. In his famous We Choose to go to the Moon speech he declares “We choose to go to the Moon! ... We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard; because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one we intend to win …”
Race to the Moon
While the Soviets were clearly the first to space, the United States were the frontrunners in their quest to put a man on the moon. The astronauts that were chosen by the United States for this mission were Neil Armstrong, Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin, and Michael Collins. Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin were the two astronauts chosen to land on the moon while Michael Collins was to stay in orbit so that they could all return home safely. Neil Armstrong was the first man to set foot on the moon and in doing so he said “One small step for man. One giant leap for mankind.”
The Soviet attempts to land on the moon ultimately fell short and they were never able to land anyone on the surface of the moon. At first the Soviets had stated that they are “not at present planning flight by cosmonauts to the moon.” but after a year of insisting that they dropped out of the race, they were committed to landing on the moon. All of their attempts had booster malfunctions, however, and they were never able to reach the moon.
While the United States and the Soviet Union competed to get to the moon and to space the race came to an end when in a joint cooperation called the Apollo-Soyuz Project where both sides were to dock each other to test airlocks and docking systems. While the race is over with the collapse of the Soviet Union, the United States and Russia now work together to learn about space and all its treasure.
Works Cited
https://www.nasa.gov/audience/forstudents/k-4/stories/first-person-on-moon.html
https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/spacecraftDisplay.do?id=1957-001B
https://www.nasa.gov/50th/50th_magazine/coldWarCoOp.html
https://er.jsc.nasa.gov/seh/ricetalk.htm
https://www.thoughtco.com/yuri-gagarin-first-man-in-space-1779362
https://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/Apollomon/apollo3.pdf
http://www.thespacerace.com
https://web.archive.org/web/20100527185932/http://www.life.com/image/first/in-gallery/23094/alan-shepard-1st-american-in-space
Period 3B
Mrs. Holan
The Space Race
The Space Race as it is commonly known was between the United States and the Soviet Union, two World War 2 allied countries that competed to send mankind to the moon. Capitalizing on the German accomplishments and technological advances in rocket science during the war, the United States and the Soviet Union both sought top German minds to head up their respective programs. The official space race began August 2nd 1955 when the United States declared that they would soon send artificial satellites into earth's atmosphere. The Soviet’s responded in kind their intention to beat the United States to space.
The Key Players
In the United States, each of the branches of the military had their own competing rocket programs, yet the only successful program was that of the United States Air Force. In 1950, Wernher Magnus Maximilian Freiherr Von Braun, or Von Braun for short, was a former German rocket scientist who fled to the United States after the war along with 1500 other German scientists, who took charge of the Air Forces program research for the MX-774 which was a failed program, finally in 1955 the MX-1593, a new project, received priority funding as it was the most successful. This new rocket would live on to become the Atlas-A and Atlas-D rockets.
The Soviet program was run by Sergei Korolev and built upon the German rocket center Peenemunde in eastern Germany which became part of the Soviet Union after the war. In addition to Korolev, known as “The Chief Designer”, the Soviets forced over 170 captured German scientists to assist the Soviets in their rocket program. These captured scientists did not participate in the final rocket designs as they were only used to assist in the building and production of the rocket's engines. With the help of the German scientists the Soviets were able to reverse engineer the German A-4 rocket and construct their own vessel which was named the R-1.
Race to Space
After the successful tests and launches of the United States and Soviet Union’s rockets it was time to launch their satellites into space. The Soviets were clearly ahead of the game when on October 4th, 1957 the Soviets used their R-7 rocket to send Sputnik, the world's first artificial satellite into space. Sputnik was a small shiny globe the size of a beach ball that only weighed approximately 184lbs. It orbited the earth in roughly 98 minutes, and after it had shut down it had an inactive flight time of 92 days.
The United State’s first satellite launch was a highly anticipated event and was broadcast live in front of the whole nation. Moments after takeoff, however, the rocket unfortunately exploded, leaving serious doubts about the U.S’s ability to catch the Soviets. The media and the public had called the failed attempt numerous names such as flopnik and dudnik. Nearly four months after the launch of sputnik the United States had successfully launched their first satellite, Explorer 1 which was about 30lbs. After this President Dwight D. Eisenhower recommended a government funded civilian agency for spaceflight to congress which led to the creation of NASA.
The Soviet Union took another great leap in the space race by surprising the world when they launched Yuri Gagarin into space. Yuri Gagarin the first man in space was in the Soviet air force after graduating technical school in 1955. In 1960 he and 19 other Soviet air force men were selected for the space program. Yuri was selected by the rest of the 19 other future cosmonauts unanimously to be sent into space on the vostok 1 which was the rocket that took him to space.
Alan Shepard was the first American in space, although he did not achieve orbit like his fellow rival Yuri Gagarin, he was the first person to manually command his vehicle in space, as Yuri never got the chance. Soon after Alan Shepard's return to earth from space, newly elected President John F. Kennedy proposed that we beat the Soviets in sending a man to the moon. In his famous We Choose to go to the Moon speech he declares “We choose to go to the Moon! ... We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard; because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one we intend to win …”
Race to the Moon
While the Soviets were clearly the first to space, the United States were the frontrunners in their quest to put a man on the moon. The astronauts that were chosen by the United States for this mission were Neil Armstrong, Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin, and Michael Collins. Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin were the two astronauts chosen to land on the moon while Michael Collins was to stay in orbit so that they could all return home safely. Neil Armstrong was the first man to set foot on the moon and in doing so he said “One small step for man. One giant leap for mankind.”
The Soviet attempts to land on the moon ultimately fell short and they were never able to land anyone on the surface of the moon. At first the Soviets had stated that they are “not at present planning flight by cosmonauts to the moon.” but after a year of insisting that they dropped out of the race, they were committed to landing on the moon. All of their attempts had booster malfunctions, however, and they were never able to reach the moon.
While the United States and the Soviet Union competed to get to the moon and to space the race came to an end when in a joint cooperation called the Apollo-Soyuz Project where both sides were to dock each other to test airlocks and docking systems. While the race is over with the collapse of the Soviet Union, the United States and Russia now work together to learn about space and all its treasure.
Works Cited
https://www.nasa.gov/audience/forstudents/k-4/stories/first-person-on-moon.html
https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/spacecraftDisplay.do?id=1957-001B
https://www.nasa.gov/50th/50th_magazine/coldWarCoOp.html
https://er.jsc.nasa.gov/seh/ricetalk.htm
https://www.thoughtco.com/yuri-gagarin-first-man-in-space-1779362
https://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/Apollomon/apollo3.pdf
http://www.thespacerace.com
https://web.archive.org/web/20100527185932/http://www.life.com/image/first/in-gallery/23094/alan-shepard-1st-american-in-space