Sint-Lodewijkscollege Brugge Klas: 6E Nr.

: 3

Vak: Geschiedenis Naam: Noor Carton

Leerkracht: S. Dupont Datum: 25/11

ESSAY GESCHIEDENIS 
 
THESIS: During the Cold War, the U.S.A and the Soviet Union both wanted to control the race to
space from 1957-1969 with political, socio-economic and intellectual consequences. 

The Cold war was a competition between the United States and the Soviet Union in every
conceivable arena – even space.  It was a struggle over political differences, settled by means that do
not involve military action or war. A lot of these conflicts divided not only the U.S.A and the Soviet
Union, but also the world. Beginning in the late 1950s the 2 superpowers, the United States and the
Soviet Union, competed for influence not only among the nations of the world, but in the skies as
well. In August 1957, the Soviets announced the development of a rocket that could travel great
distances – ICBM or an intercontinental ballistic missile-. Later they used this to push Sputnik,  the
first unmanned satellite, above the earth’s atmosphere. After the Majority leader Lyndon B.
Johnsons (who was a politician from the Democratic Party) heard this announcement on the radio,
he realized that the Russians aren’t as behind in technology as they all thought (document B, Robert
D. Launius, retrieved September 2, 2009). This created anxiety and despondency among
Americans. It should not have come as a surprise to the Americans, observes John Logsdon, director,
of the Space Policy Institute and Elliot School of International Affairs at George Washington
University. The reaction was more fear than surprise, because it showed clearly that the U.S. was no
longer safe from the Soviet Union behind its ocean barriers. Yet it remained difficult for the
Americans because they depended on the government's annual budget (document C, Lyndo B.
Johnson, January 8, 1958). “Those who control space can easily control the world.” That being said,
the Americans sprang into action and more money was being pushed into science
education (document A, Leonard David, retrieved August 13, 2009). With the beginning of the race
to space, the U.S. is gaining momentum, training more scientists and engineers and creating jobs in
the technology and manufacturing sectors that will ultimately boost the nation's future and
economy.  

The U.S. began designing a launch rocket that they would use to put a satellite into orbit.  On
December 6, 1957, after the -Vanguard rocket- fired, it began to take off and everyone was excited.
But not soon after, it began to descend again and because of its speed created a big fireball and fell
back down on itself. This put a dent in the self-confidence of the Americans (document F, David W.
Reynolds, 2002). The U.S. did not give up and Dr. William H Pickering, Dr. James A. Van Allen, Dr.
Wernher von Braun and a large group of experts kept trying. This led, after early failures,  to the U.S.
own artificial satellite – Explorer 1  - launch on 31 January 1958, four months after Sputnik
(document E, NASA, January 31, 1958). From then on, the sky became a place to fight for, literally
and figuratively.  
Both the Soviet- Union and America were making great progress in space  and these changes in
science and technology had a huge impact on the world. The Soviets scored a major first in 1959:
Luna 2, a Russian unmanned lunar flight. For the first time, a man-made object landed on the
moon. In response to the observed technological successes of the Soviet Union, the
Americans established the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) on October
1, 1958, as the principal federal agency responsible for aerospace research and the space
program. NASA's first objective was to put a manned vehicle into orbit as quickly as possible.
However, it would be the Soviets who would win this race. In April 1961, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri
Gagarin became the first human to enter orbit in a single-pilot spacecraft named Vostok I. The
Americans were not far behind, a month later, Alan Shepard became the first American in
space aboard the Mercury MR-3. The Soviet Union's early successes in the space race led U.S.
President John F. Kennedy to announce the launch of the Apollo program, which promised to put a
man on the moon by the end of the decade. In 1962, head of the Soviet cosmonaut corps, Nikolai
Petrovich, said that he had no doubt that the U.S.S.R. would remain the front-runner in space. He
had a lot of faith in their technology, but not much later he was already regretting his words. On April
23, 1967, Komarov was launched for his second space flight aboard the Soyuz 1, but during the flight
there were problems and it was decided to shorten the flight. Subsequently, Komarov died because
the parachutes fail to deploy during his landing. It was a terrible blunder and that in turn created a
tendency of hedging (document H, Nikolai Petrovich Kamanin, December 21, 1968).  

After many attempts and small successful actions, America has made the biggest step, according to
many. On July 20, 1969, Neil A. Armstrong and Edwin E. Aldrin took the first footstep on the lunar
surface with the wise words, "It's one small step for man, but a giant leap for mankind."  With no
official measure of success, the winner of the Space Race is a point of  opinions. Most historians agree
that the space race ended on 20 July 1969 when Neil Armstrong stepped onto the Moon for the first
time. As the climax of space history and exploration, the lunar landing led to a triumph for the US. 
The race to space from 1957-1969 has created various alliances, leaps in technology and science,
new job opportunities... Altogether now we can conclude that the race to space has had a lot of
impact on the political, cultural and socio-economic fields of the U.S.S.R. and the U.S.A.