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Since the end of
World War 2, humans
have had a very powerful compulsion to
explore space. In the 1950s,
the US and the Soviet Union began the Space
Race and in the 1960s,
the race to put people into space took off.
This began with the
Soviets putting Yuri Gagarin into orbit in
April of 1961. Later that
year, the Americans successfully put Alan
Shepard into orbit. The
Space Race culminated in 1969, when America
Neil Armstrong and the
crew of Apollo 11 reached the Moon.
There are two
main types of launch
vehicles that go into space, reusable and
expendable. They work
exactly how they sound. Reusable vehicles,
like the Space Shuttle,
can be reused after they land. Expendable
vehicles can only be used
once and a new one must be built for every
launch. There are
advantages to each kind of vehicle. Reusable
vehicles can be
launched again and again, whereas expendable
vehicles can carry much
larger payloads.
In the 1950s,
60s, and 70s, American
spacecraft were largely based on ballistic
missiles. This included
the largest and most powerful expendable
spacecraft in history, the
Saturn V. The Saturn V was the mainstay of
American space travel for
almost 10 years. It was this platform that
carried the Apollo
astronauts into space. The Saturn V is the
only launch vehicle that
has carried people beyond low Earth orbit.
During this same
time, the Soviets used
their Soyuz rocket. This is an expendable
vehicle that went into
service in 1966 and is still in use today.
The Soyuz is based on an
intercontinental ballistic missile and has
only been modified
slightly in the years since. This is the
most used launch vehicle in
the world. It has flown over 1700 missions
and is known for being
low cost and highly reliable, which is part
of its appeal to
commercial users.
In 1981, America
introduced the Space
Shuttle. This was designed to replace
American dependence on
expendable vehicles. The Space Shuttle was
supposed to significantly
reduce the cost of sending material and
people into space. It failed
to deliver on this promise, but due to the
introduction of the
International Space Station Program, the
life of the Space Shuttle
Program was extended by 15 years. The Space
Shuttle program was
ended in 2011 after 30 years of service.
Image Credit:
https://www.nasa.gov/content/soyuz-arrives-at-launch-pad
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