Space+Race

Abby Belisle Madeleine Anderson Spencer Olsen The space race was yet another event that happened during our Cold War with Russia. The space race was a competition between the Russians and the Americans and who could out do each other in outer space. A few of the categories that events were held in were, artificial space satellites, sending a man into space and putting a man on the moon, both countries became extremely competitive vying for control of the final frontier.
 * SPACE RACE **

[|Sputniks-] Russia took the first event, when they beat the Americans to putting the first space satellite into orbit. The Russians launched Sputnik in the fall of 1957, beating the Americans deadline for a satellite in space by spring of '58. Sputnik I was about the size of a beach ball and weighed 183.9 pounds. Soon after Russia launched Sputnik 2. The second Sputnik held a dog named Laika, making the dog the first living thing in space. Shortly after lift off the dog died of over stress after starting its orbit in space, it would have died in the re-entry to earth anyway. Sputnik I and II caught the worlds attention and the U.S. started to worry that Russia's launching technology might turn it's attention more towards bombs than space. the U.S. responded to the launch of the Sputniks by supporting a project to build the Explorer, a satellite that succeeded and discovered the magnetic belts around the earth. Along with the Explorer project the U.S. government set up NASA, National Aeronautics and Space Act.

First Man in Space- On 12 April 1961, Yuri Gagarin,a Soviet cosmonaut, became the first human in outer space and the first to orbit the Earth. He went into space in the Vostok 1. Because No one knew how Gagarin would be affected by space they put the rocket in auto pilot. Gagarin stayed in orbit for 108 minutes. He returned unharmed ejecting from the Vostok capsule and parachuting to the ground

[|First Man on the Moon-] After Russia's quick win of the first "event" the U.S. retaliated with their space craft, Apollo 11 that landed a man on the moon. The space ship was controlled by Commander Neil Alden Armstrong, Command Module Pilot Michael Collins, and Lunar Module Pilot Edwin Eugene 'Buzz' Aldrin, Jr. When the ship reached the moon on July 20th Collins stayed in the command module and orbited the moon while Armstrong and Aldrin took a stroll on the moon. This fulfilled President Kennedy's dream of putting a man on the moon by the close of the 1960's.

Dates for the Space Race are shown in this timeline:

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Bibliography For Information- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Race http://www.newseum.org/cybernewseum/exhibits/dateline_moon/space.htm