“Space, the final frontier”, these words spoken by William Shatners ‘Captain Kirk’ inspired a generation that was right in the middle of one of the pivotal moments during the Cold War to look up at the stars. The Space Race was a competition between the two main superpowers of the Cold War the USSR and the USA during the late half of the 20th century. It originated from the nuclear arms race that occurred between these two countries following the capture of the German technology after World War II. The Space Race started in 1955 and lasted for about 20 years before finally ending in 1975 with the meeting of the US Astronaut and USSR Cosmonaut crew in the joining of two space stations in July in what was called the ‘Apollo–Soyuz Test Project’
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This fear was only intensified when the Soviet Union launched their first satellite Sputnik into orbit.
The Space Race officially started on “ October 4th, 1957” when The Soviet Union “launched the first Earth orbiting satellite” called Sputnik much to the surprise of the United States. This caused a lot of worry for everyone living in North America, especially for the American’s themselves, as it showed that the Soviet Union was capable of launching cross-continental ballistic missiles that would have no problem reaching the shores of the United States. Nevertheless, although this caused quite a bit of panic, it also gave insight into a certain wonder of what the human race was capable of, “With the launch of Sputnik 1, the Space Age had been born and the world would be different ever after.” This act by the Soviets is also what pushed America to enter into the Space …show more content…
Given this, plans were made to launch ‘Project Vanguard’. This satellite was set to launch on “December 6th, 1957” but it only managed to get three feet off the launching platform before bursting into flames.” Next, the Americans then tried to launch a second satellite On “ February 5th, 1958” where “Vanguard launch vehicle reached an altitude of four miles and then exploded.” Fortunately, for the United States they had a team of Germans who had immigrated after World War II had been working on a satellite called ‘project explorer’ that “lifted off from the Cape Canaveral, Florida, launch site at 10:55 p.m. on 31 January 1958.” This satellite that was sent up wasn’t just set up to circulate the Earth, it also “carried a small instrument, essentially a Geiger counter to measure radiation encircling the earth.” This instrument is what discovered the Van Allen Radiation
This fear was only intensified when the Soviet Union launched their first satellite Sputnik into orbit.
The Space Race officially started on “ October 4th, 1957” when The Soviet Union “launched the first Earth orbiting satellite” called Sputnik much to the surprise of the United States. This caused a lot of worry for everyone living in North America, especially for the American’s themselves, as it showed that the Soviet Union was capable of launching cross-continental ballistic missiles that would have no problem reaching the shores of the United States. Nevertheless, although this caused quite a bit of panic, it also gave insight into a certain wonder of what the human race was capable of, “With the launch of Sputnik 1, the Space Age had been born and the world would be different ever after.” This act by the Soviets is also what pushed America to enter into the Space …show more content…
Given this, plans were made to launch ‘Project Vanguard’. This satellite was set to launch on “December 6th, 1957” but it only managed to get three feet off the launching platform before bursting into flames.” Next, the Americans then tried to launch a second satellite On “ February 5th, 1958” where “Vanguard launch vehicle reached an altitude of four miles and then exploded.” Fortunately, for the United States they had a team of Germans who had immigrated after World War II had been working on a satellite called ‘project explorer’ that “lifted off from the Cape Canaveral, Florida, launch site at 10:55 p.m. on 31 January 1958.” This satellite that was sent up wasn’t just set up to circulate the Earth, it also “carried a small instrument, essentially a Geiger counter to measure radiation encircling the earth.” This instrument is what discovered the Van Allen Radiation