Let’s Learn about the Cold War: Part 15 – The Space Race

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Sean D. Smith
  • Minot Air Force Base Public Affairs
MINOT AIR FORCE BASE, N.D. --  During the Cold War the United States and the USSR were in a persistent state of competition: for influence, for tangible gains, and for public opinion. The Space Race was an inevitable result of that competitive environment. Both the United States and the Soviet Union wanted space supremacy not only for the technological and potential military advantage, but for the prestige and the advantage in public opinion.

The space programs on both sides had their roots in German rocket labs aimed at developing ballistic missiles in the 1930s. One of the most powerful weapons of World War II was the Vergeltungswaffe 2 - known commonly as the V-2 rocket. The name translates to "Vengeance Weapon 2." The V-2 was powerful, long-range, and difficult to defend against because of its supersonic speed. After the war, both American and Soviet rocket designs were based on the V-2.

The starting line for the race was drawn in 1955, when the United States and the USSR both had the technology to launch objects into space.

The Soviet Union scored the first major victory in 1957 with the successful launch of Sputnik 1, the first artificial satellite. Around the same time, the American equivalent of the Sputnik program, Project Vanguard, failed. This led to fear in America and the perception of a technological gap between the two superpowers with the USSR in the dominant position.

The American effort to catch up led to the creation of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, or NASA.

The USSR was the first to accomplish the next major goal as well: launching a human into orbit in 1961. Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin was the first man in space, making a single orbit around the Earth in the spacecraft Vostok 1. Gagarin became a worldwide hero, and his exchange with the Soviet launch control room has become iconic with regards to space exploration:

Soviet Control: "We wish you a good flight. Everything is all right."
Yuri Gagarin: "Let's go!"

Just three weeks later, the first American in space was Alan Shephard of NASA's Mercury Project. The next milestone was putting a man on the moon, which President John F. Kennedy was deeply committed to, but that race was costly. There were major setbacks and fatalities on both sides with the American Apollo project and the Soviet Soyuz program.

In 1969 the United States successfully landed on the moon with Apollo 11. Astronaut Neil Armstrong became the first man to walk on its surface. To date, the United States is the only country to have successfully gotten people to the moon.

The Space Race wound down after the moon landing. The USSR started to focus on orbital space stations, and decades later the United States and Russia would cooperate in the operation of the International Space Station.

There were victories and defeats on both sides throughout the Space Race, and in the end, the winner was everyone; the Space Race brought about enormous progress in science and technology that would go on to benefit people all over the world.

Next time: the Berlin Crisis of 1961