The Space Race
18 Years of Scientific Breakthroughs
the First Launch
In 1957, the Soviet Union televised the launch of Sputnik, which happened to be the first man-made satellite. This event started a chain reaction of a race to create technology to get people from both the United States and the Soviet Union into space.
The U.S. Follows Suite
Later in 1957, the U.S. Navy adapted their developing technology and launched the Vanguard. Unfortunately, it crashed a few seconds later. The U.S. Army, however, had also been working on satellite tech and in 1958, successfully launched the Explorer.
The Soviet Union Breaks Through
In 1961, the Soviet Union put the first man in space (Yuri Gagarin) and after that, many more successful shuttles and crafts were launched into space such as the Sputnik 3 and Luna 1,2, and 3.
U.S. Catches Up
After the first man was put into space, the United States managed to get the first American man in orbit 1962. Kennedy then set the goal of being the first country to put a man on the moon.
Man on the Moon
By mid 1969, the United States puts Neil Armstrong on the moon, standing as possibly the largest scientific break through in over two decades. However, before this, the Soviet Union met many important milestones like putting the first woman is space, preforming the first space walk, landing the first craft on Venus, and making the first satellite to orbit the moon.
How It Ended
After many, many accomplishments over a short period of time, both countries turned their attention to the modifications of satellites and after that, the Space Race sort of died out. The United States and the Soviet Union just stopped attempting to "one-up" each other, but the Space Race officially ended in 1975 in a joint mission called Apollo-Soyuz where a U.S. and Soviet satellite docked together and the astronauts from both crews met and celebrated