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The Space Race

The concept of rocketry was first used by the Chinese in 1232 CE. The Chinese used gun powder to power "fire-arrows" to repel Mongol invaders at the battle of Kai-fung-fu. (Hamilton, 2001)
In 1903, a Russian school teacher, Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, developed the basic theory of rocket propulsion. (Irvine, 2004)
Robert Gaddard, an American, was the first to successfully launch a liquid-propelled rocket using liquid oxygen and gasoline. (Irvine, 2004)
During World War II, German scientist Wernher von Braun made significant developments in the design and development of his V-2 rockets using liquid oxygen and an ethyl alcohol-water mixture. After the drop of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945 and the end of WWII, Great Britain, the Soviet Union, and the United States rushed into Germany to capture rocket technology and German scientists. (Irvine, 2004)
On August 29, 1949, the Soviet Union successfully tested its first atomic bomb. This event helped drag the Soviet Union and the United States into the Cold War and an arms race. (Irvine, 2004)

In 1957, the United States and Soviet Union held an International Geophysics Year to promote the study and understanding of the Earth. As a result, on Oct. 4, 1957, the Soviet Union launched the first man-made satellite ever, Sputnik 1. (Irving, 2004)

In reaction to the Soviet launch, President Eisenhower sent a bill to congress to create the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) marking the beginning of the "space race." Senator Lyndon B. Johnson emphasized the need for the United States to pursue a future in space, "In the eyes of the world, first in space means first, period; second in space is second in everything." (Wikipedia, 2004)

The Soviet Union set many landmarks and were the first to do many things including sending the first animals into space, the first cosmonauts, performed the first space walk, sent the first unmanned satellites and probes to orbit the moon, take pictures and land on its surface. The United States usually followed suite one step behind the Soviet Union. Immediately after the United States sent their first man into orbit, President John F. Kennedy proposed, "...I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to Earth." Shortly after Kennedy's goal was announced, Wernher von Braun led a team to develop a new rocket booster, the Saturn V, to be used for the Apollo missions by the United States. (Irvine, 2004)

After the lunar landing by the United States in 1969, both nation's space programs continued to make

progress launching several probes to other planets to take pictures and collect data. As the Cold War began to wind down, the United States and the Soviet Union first cooperated with their space programs on July 15, 1975 with the Apollo-Soyuz rendezvous mission. This event marked the end of the space race, but the Cold War continued on until the fall of the Soviet Union several years later.