topicspace race
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ThemeExploration, Encounter & Exchange
Through the US's devotion to their space program they were able to go out and achieve what was once thought to be unbelievable. Through this process they had to get past many obstacles, some mental, and some physical. With this program they were able to use this in order to give their people hope, and a sense of nationalism.
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General background Info-on October 4, 1957 the Soviet Union launched Sputnik the worlds first artificial satellite.
-this was bad news for the U.S. because if Russia could make launches into space then maybe they could launch nuclear missiles too. -a month later Sputnik ll went up carrying a bigger payload, a passenger -the fist living thing to space was a dog -struggling to catch up the U.S. launched their own satellite named Explorer 1 -in 1958 the U.S. was finally in the race -on April 12, 1961 the USSR sent Yuri Gagarin the first man in space. -a few weeks later american Allen Shepard reached space in Freedom 7 -the Soviet Union had a ton of first for example the first lady to space, the first duo to space, the first moon walk, etc. -John F. Kennedy gave a speech on May 25, 1961 about landing a man on the moon and returning him home safely -that speech began the Apallo Lunar Program -it was a risky 25 billion dollar investment -if they succeeded this would put the on top of the race and victory over the Soviet totalitarianism -on July 20, 1969 Apallo 11 landed on the moon, Neil Armstrong walked on the moon -the very next day Russia launched an unmanned craft called Luna 15 to collect rocks and take picture but crashed on the moon and that was Russia's last attempt in space travel making the United States the victor of the space race |
United States vs Russia
the United States launched their first aircraft into space on January 31,1958. This was the Explorer 1, it was the first US satellite to reach outer space.the first manned journey to the moon started on December 21 1968. On July 20 1969 Neil Armstrong and Edwin "Buzz"Aldrin were the first 2 men to step on the moon to end the race. the
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It is important to note that Russia was the first one to be in space. This happened with the launch of the Sputnik on October 4th, 1957, twelve whole years before the launch of Apollo 11. One important factor that kept the Soviets from being able to get to the moon was the fact that Russia lacked an organized structure that was needed in order to run a non-military space program.
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