The
Space Race was an informal competition between the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and the
Soviet UnionThe Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. The name is a translation of the , tr. Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, abbreviated СССР, SSSR. The common short name is Soviet Union, from , Sovetskiy Soyuz...
, as each side tried to match or better the other's accomplishments in exploring outer space. It involved the efforts to explore
outer spaceOuter space comprises the relatively empty regions of the universe outside the atmospheres of celestial bodies. Outer space is used to distinguish it from airspace and terrestrial locations....
with
artificial satellitesIn the context of spaceflight, a satellite is an object which has been placed into orbit by human endeavor. Such objects are sometimes called artificial satellites to distinguish them from natural satellites such as the Moon....
, to
send man into spaceHuman spaceflight is spaceflight with a human crew and possibly passengers. This makes it unlike robotic space probes or remotely-controlled satellites...
, and to land him on the
MoonThe Moon is Earth's only natural satellite and the fifth largest satellite in the Solar System. The average centre-to-centre distance from the Earth to the Moon is , about thirty times the diameter of the Earth. The common centre of mass of the system is located at about —a quarter the Earth's...
.
The Space Race effectively began after the Soviet launch of
Sputnik 1Sputnik 1 was the first Earth-orbiting artificial satellite. It was launched into an elliptical low earth orbit by the Soviet Union on 4 October 1957, and was the first in a series of satellites collectively known as the Sputnik program...
on October 4, 1957. The term originated as an analogy to the
arms raceThe nuclear arms race was a competition for supremacy in nuclear warfare between the United States, the Soviet Union, and their respective allies during the Cold War...
. The Space Race became an important part of the cultural, technological, and ideological rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union during the
Cold WarThe Cold War was the continuing state of political conflict, military tension, and economic competition existing after World War II , primarily between the USSR and its satellite states, and the powers of the Western world, including the United States...
.
Space technologySpace technology is technology that is related to entering space, maintaining and using systems during spaceflight and returning people and things from space....
became a particularly important arena in this conflict, because of both its potential military applications and the morale-boosting social benefits.
Background
Rockets have interested scientists and amateurs for centuries. The
ChineseChina is a cultural region, an ancient civilization, and, depending on perspective, a national or multinational entity extending over a large area in East Asia....
used them as weapons
beginning in the Song DynastyThe Song Dynasty provided some of the most significant technological advances in Chinese history, many of which came from talented statesmen drafted by the government through imperial examinations....
, and simple (but inaccurate) iron rockets were common ship- and land-based weapons by the 19th century. Russian pioneer
Konstantin TsiolkovskyKonstantin Eduardovich Tsiolkovsky was an Imperial Russian and Soviet rocket scientist and pioneer of the astronautic theory. He is considered by many to be the father of theoretical astronautics...
theorized in the 1880s on
multi-stageA multistage rocket is a rocket that usestwo or more stages, each of which contains its own engines and propellant. A tandem or serial stage is mounted on top of another stage; a parallel stage is attached alongside another stage. The result is effectively two or more rockets stacked on top of...
,
liquid fuelA liquid-fuel rocket or a liquid rocket is a rocket with an engine that uses propellants in liquid form. Liquids are desirable because their reasonably high density allows the volume and hence the mass of the tanks to be relatively low, resulting in a high mass ratio...
rockets which might reach space and established the basics of
rocket scienceRocket science is an informal term for aerospace engineering. It is the science and technology of flight.Due to the complexity and depth of this area of engineering Rocket science is an informal term for aerospace engineering. It is the science and technology of flight.Due to the complexity and...
; his
rocket equationThe Tsiolkovsky rocket equation, or ideal rocket equation, is a mathematical equation that relates the delta-v with the effective exhaust velocity and the initial and end mass of a rocket....
, which determines flight velocity, is still used in the design of modern rockets today. Tsiolkovsky also wrote the first theoretical description of a man-made satellite.
In 1926, American
Robert H. GoddardRobert Hutchings Goddard , U.S. professor of physics and scientist, was a pioneer of controlled, liquid-fueled rocketry. He launched the world's first liquid-fueled rocket on March 16, 1926. From 1930 to 1935, he launched rockets that attained speeds of up to 885 km/h...
designed a practical liquid fuel rocket.
German contributions
In the mid-1920s,
GermanThe Weimar Republic is the name given by historians to the parliamentary republic established in 1919 in Germany to replace the imperial form of government, named after Weimar, the place where the constitutional assembly took place. Its official name was still Deutsches Reich , however...
scientists began experimenting with rockets powered by liquid propellants that were capable of reaching relatively high altitudes and distances. In 1932, the
ReichswehrThe Reichswehr formed the military organisation of Germany from 1919 until 1935, when it was renamed the Wehrmacht ....
, predecessor of the
WehrmachtWehrmacht was the name of the unified armed forces of Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the Heer , the Kriegsmarine and the Luftwaffe ....
, took an interest in rocketry for long-range
artilleryArtillery is a military combat Arm that employs weapons capable of discharging large projectiles in combat. They are generally capable of adding considerable fire power to the military capability of an armed force...
(since long-range guns had been prohibited by the Versailles Treaty).
Wernher von BraunWernher Magnus Maximilian Freiherr von Braun was a German American rocket physicist and astronautics engineer, becoming one of the leading figures in the development of rocket technology in Germany and the United States...
, an aspiring rocket scientist, joined the effort and developed such weapons for
Nazi GermanyNazi Germany and the Third Reich are the common English names for Germany between 1933 and 1945, while it was led by Adolf Hitler and the National Socialist German Worker's Party . The name Third Reich refers to the state as the successor to the Holy Roman Empire of the Middle Ages and the German...
's use in
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
.
The German
A-4 rocket, launched in 1942, became the first such projectile to reach space. In 1943, Germany began production of this weapon, with a range of 300 kilometers (185 mi) and a 1,000 kilogram (2,200 lb)
warheadThe term warhead refers to the explosive material and detonator that is delivered by a missile, rocket, or torpedo.- Etymology :During the early development of naval torpedoes, they could be equipped with an inert payload that was intended for use during training, test firing and exercises. This...
, as
Vergeltungswaffe 2 (Vengeance Weapon 2). The Wehrmacht fired thousands of V-2s at
Allied citiesThe Allies of World War II were the countries that opposed the Axis powers during the Second World War . The involvement of the Allies in World War II was either natural and inevitable they were invaded or under the direct threat of invasion by the Axis or compelled by concerns that the Axis powers...
, causing significant damage and loss of life. However, they also consumed an enormous quantity of resources, very disproportionate to their limited effectiveness.
As World War II drew to a close, U.S., UK, and Soviet military and scientific teams raced to capture technology and trained personnel from the German facility at
PeenemündePeenemünde is a village in the northeast of the German part of Usedom island. It stands near the mouth of the Peene river, on the easternmost part of the German Baltic coast. The area includes the 1992 :commons:Historisch-technisches Informationszentrum Peenemünde, an Anchor Point of the...
. The United Kingdom and the Soviet Union had some success, but the United States arguably benefited most, taking a large number of German rocket scientists, including von Braun — from Germany to the United States as part of
Operation PaperclipOperation Paperclip was the code name for the 1945 Office of Strategic Services, Joint Intelligence Objectives Agencyrecruitment of German scientists from Nazi Germany to the U.S...
. Later they played a decisive role in development of the US space program and became responsible for many US achievements during the first decade of
Space AgeThe Space Age is a contemporary period encompassing the activities related to the Space Race, space exploration, space technology, and the cultural developments influenced by these events...
. Meanwhile American scientists adapted the German rockets for use against hostile nations and other uses. Until 1957 German scientists, including von Braun, used rockets to study high-altitude conditions of temperature and pressure of the
atmosphereThe Earth's atmosphere is a layer of gases surrounding the planet Earth that is retained by Earth's gravity. The atmosphere protects life on Earth by absorbing ultraviolet solar radiation, warming the surface through heat retention , and reducing temperature extremes between day and night...
,
cosmic rayCosmic rays are energetic particles originating from outer space that impinge on Earth's atmosphere. Almost 90% of all the incoming cosmic ray particles are protons, almost 10% are helium nuclei , and slightly under 1% are heavier elements and electrons...
s, and other topics.
Cold War roots
After
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, the United States and the Soviet Union became involved in a
Cold WarThe Cold War was the continuing state of political conflict, military tension, and economic competition existing after World War II , primarily between the USSR and its satellite states, and the powers of the Western world, including the United States...
of
espionageEspionage or spying involves an individual obtaining information that is considered secret or confidential without the permission of the holder of the information. Espionage is inherently clandestine, as the legitimate holder of the information may change plans or take other countermeasures once it...
and
propagandaPropaganda is communication aimed at influencing the attitude of a community toward some cause or position. As opposed to impartially providing information, propaganda in its most basic sense, presents information primarily to influence an audience...
. The United States Air Force ended World War II with both a large strategic bomber force and advance bases in countries close to Soviet airspace; with no equivalent, the Soviet leadership made development of long range missiles and rockets a higher priority. Much of the technological development required for wartime rockets such as
Intercontinental ballistic missileAn intercontinental ballistic missile, or ICBM, is a long-range ballistic missile typically designed for nuclear weapons delivery, that is, delivering one or more nuclear warheads...
s (ICBMs) applied equally well to rockets made for human space flight. The same rockets that might send a human into orbit or land a payload on the Moon could be used to send an atom bomb to an enemy city.
Sputnik-1
On July 29, 1957, in recognition of the 1957-1958
International Geophysical YearThe International Geophysical Year was an international scientific effort that lasted from July 1, 1957, to December 31, 1958.The IGY encompassed eleven Earth sciences: aurora and airglow, cosmic rays, geomagnetism, gravity, ionospheric physics, longitude and latitude determinations , meteorology,...
, the White House announced that the U.S. intended to launch satellites by the spring of 1958. This became known as
Project VanguardProject Vanguard was a program managed by the United States Naval Research Laboratory , which intended to launch the first artificial satellite into Earth orbit using a Vanguard rocket as the launch vehicle....
. On July 31, the Soviets announced that they intended to launch a satellite by the fall of 1957.
On 4 October 1957, the Soviet Union successfully launched
Sputnik 1Sputnik 1 was the first Earth-orbiting artificial satellite. It was launched into an elliptical low earth orbit by the Soviet Union on 4 October 1957, and was the first in a series of satellites collectively known as the Sputnik program...
, the first artificial satellite to orbit the Earth, thus beginning the Space Race and making the USSR the first
space power. A month later, the USSR successfully orbited
Sputnik 2Sputnik 2 was the second spacecraft launched into Earth orbit, on November 3, 1957, and the first to carry a living animal, a dog named Laika. It was a 4-meter high cone-shaped capsule with a base diameter of 2 meters...
, with the first living passenger, a dog named
LaikaLaika was a Soviet space dog who became the first animal to orbit the Earth and the first orbital death. Little was known about the impact of space flight on living things at the time Laika's mission was launched...
.
In the Soviet Union, a country recovering from a devastating war, the launch of
Sputnik and the following program of space exploration were met with great interest from the public. It was also important and encouraging for Soviet citizens to see the proof of technical prowess in the new era.
In the meantime, a public and embarrassing
Project Vanguard launch failureVanguard TV3 was the first attempt of the United States to launch a satellite into orbit around the Earth. It was a small satellite designed to test the launch capabilities of the three-stage Vanguard rocket and study the effects of the environment on a satellite and its systems in Earth orbit...
had occurred at
Cape CanaveralCape Canaveral, from the Spanish Cabo Cañaveral, is a headland in Brevard County, Florida, United States, near the center of that state's Atlantic coast 45 minutes East of Orlando by car. Known as Cape Kennedy from 1963 to 1973, it sits due east of Merritt Island, separated from it by the Banana...
. But nearly four months after the launch of
Sputnik 1, the United States successfully launched its first satellite,
Explorer 1, with an
alternate programThe Explorer program was the United States's first successful attempt to launch an artificial satellite. It began as a U.S. Army proposal to place a scientific satellite into orbit during the International Geophysical Year. That proposal was rejected in favor of the U.S. Navy's Project Vanguard...
on an accelerated schedule, becoming the second "space power".
Sputnik's success and
Vanguard's failure caused such political turmoil in the United States that the period is known as the
Sputnik crisisThe Sputnik crisis was a turning point of the Cold War that began on October 4, 1957 when the Soviet Union launched the Sputnik 1 satellite. The United States had believed itself to be the world leader in space technology and thus the leader in missile development. The surprise of the Sputnik...
. The Eisenhower administration quickly enacted several initiatives to address the perceived technical shortcomings in the United States. Within a year, the
United States CongressThe United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States of America, consisting of two houses, the Senate and the House of Representatives. Both senators and representatives are chosen through direct election....
passed the legislation creating
NASAThe National Aeronautics and Space Administration is an agency of the United States government, responsible for the nation's public space program. NASA was established by the National Aeronautics and Space Act on July 29, 1958, replacing its predecessor, the National Advisory Committee for...
, as well as the
National Defense Education ActThe National Defense Education Act , signed into law on September 2, 1958, provided funding to United States education institutions at all levels. The act authorized funding for four years, increasing funding per year: for example, funding increased on eight program titles from 183 million dollars...
, the most far-reaching federally-sponsored education initiative in the nation's history. The education bill authorized expenditures of more than $1 billion for a wide range of reforms including new school construction, fellowships and loans to encourage promising students to seek higher education, new efforts in vocational education to meet critical manpower shortages in the defense industry, and a host of other programs. NASAs
Mercury manned space programProject Mercury was the first human spaceflight program of the United States. It ran from 1959 through 1963 with the goal of putting a human in orbit around the Earth...
was initiated by 1959.
Apart from their political value as technological achievements, these first satellites had real scientific value.
Sputnik helped to determine the density of the upper atmosphere, through measurement from the ground of the satellite's orbital changes. It also provided data on radio-signal distribution in the
ionosphereThe ionosphere is the uppermost part of the atmosphere, distinguished because it is ionized by solar radiation. It plays an important part in atmospheric electricity and forms the inner edge of the magnetosphere...
. Pressurized nitrogen, in the satellite's body, provided the first opportunity for meteoroid detection. If a meteoroid penetrated the satellite's outer hull, it would be detected by the temperature data sent back to Earth. Engineering and biological data from
Sputnik 2 and the dog Laika were transmitted back to Earth. Two photometers were on board for measuring solar radiation (ultraviolet and x-ray emissions) and cosmic rays.
Explorer 1 flight data led to the discovery of the
Van Allen radiation beltThe Van Allen radiation belt is a torus of energetic charged particles around Earth, which is held in place by Earth's magnetic field. This field is not uniformly distributed around the Earth. On the sunward side, it is compressed because of the solar wind, while on the other side it is elongated...
by
James Van AllenJames Alfred Van Allen was an American space scientist at the University of Iowa. The Van Allen radiation belts were named after him, following the 1958 satellite missions in which Van Allen had argued that a Geiger counter should be used to detect charged particles.-Honors:* TIME magazine Man of...
, considered one of the outstanding discoveries of the
International Geophysical YearThe International Geophysical Year was an international scientific effort that lasted from July 1, 1957, to December 31, 1958.The IGY encompassed eleven Earth sciences: aurora and airglow, cosmic rays, geomagnetism, gravity, ionospheric physics, longitude and latitude determinations , meteorology,...
.
As with the Soviet public, the American public followed the succession of launches, and building
replicas of rocketsA model rocket is a small rocket capable of being launched by anybody, to generally low altitudes and recovered by a variety of means....
became a popular hobby.
Satellite communications
The first
communications satelliteA communications satellite is an artificial satellite stationed in space for the purpose of telecommunications...
, the American
Project SCOREProject SCORE was the world’s first communications satellite. Launched in an Atlas rocket on December 18 1958, SCORE provided a first test of a communications relay system in space and captured world attention by broadcasting a Christmas message via short wave frequency from U.S. President Dwight D...
, launched on 18 December 1958,and relayed a Christmas message from President
Dwight D. EisenhowerDwight David "Ike" Eisenhower was a five-star general in the United States Army and the 34th President of the United States, from 1953 until 1961. During the Second World War, he served as Supreme Commander of the Allied forces in Europe, with responsibility for planning and supervising the...
to the world. Other notable examples of satellite communication during (or spawned by) the Space Race include:
- 1960: Echo 1A
The Echo satellites were NASA's first passive communications satellite experiment. Each spacecraft was designed as a metallized balloon satellite acting as a passive reflector of microwave signals...
: first passive communications satellite
- 1962: Telstar
Telstar is the name of various communications satellites, including the first ever such satellite able to relay television signals.The first two Telstar satellites were "Telstar 1", launched July 10, 1962 and operational until February 21, 1963, and "Telstar 2", launched May 7, 1963 and operational...
: the first "active" communications satellite (experimental transoceanic)
- 1963: Syncom 2
Syncom started as a 1961 NASA program for active geosynchronous communication satellites, all of which were developed and manufactured by Hughes Space and Communications...
: the first geosynchronous communications satellite (Clarke orbit)
- 1972: Anik 1: first domestic communications satellite (Canada
Canada is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
)
- 1974: Westar
Westar was the name for the fleet of geosynchronous communications satellites operating in the C band which were launched by Western Union from 1974 to 1984...
: first U.S. domestic communications satellite
- 1976: Marisat
Marisat satellites were the first maritime telecommunications satellites and were designed to provide dependable telecommunications for commercial shipping and the U.S Navy from stable geosynchronous orbital locations over the three major ocean regions...
: first mobile communications satellite
The United States launched the first
geosynchronousA geosynchronous orbit is an orbit around the Earth with an orbital period matching the Earth's sidereal rotation period. This synchronization means that for an observer at a fixed location on Earth, a satellite in a geosynchronous orbit returns to exactly the same place in the sky at exactly the...
satellite,
SyncomSyncom started as a 1961 NASA program for active geosynchronous communication satellites, all of which were developed and manufactured by Hughes Space and Communications...
-2, on 26 July 1963. The success of this class of satellite meant that a simple satellite dish no longer needed to track the orbit of the satellite because that orbit remained
geostationaryA geostationary orbit is a geosynchronous orbit directly above the Earth's equator , with a period equal to the Earth's rotational period and an orbital eccentricity of approximately zero...
. Henceforth ordinary citizens could use satellite-mediated communications transmissions for television broadcasts, after a one-time setup.
Animals in space
Fruit flies launched by the United States on captured German
V-2 rocketAccording to head of Nazi rocket program Walter Dornberger, the V-2 rocket was the world's first ballistic missile and first human artifact to achieve sub-orbital spaceflight. It was the progenitor of all modern rockets...
s in 1946 became the first reported
animals sent into spaceAnimals in space originally served to test the survivability of spaceflight before manned space missions were attempted. Later, animals were flown to investigate various biological processes and the effects microgravity and space flight might have on them...
.
The first animal sent into
orbitIn physics, an orbit is the gravitationally curved path of one object around a point or another body, for example the gravitational orbit of a planet around a star....
, the dog
LaikaLaika was a Soviet space dog who became the first animal to orbit the Earth and the first orbital death. Little was known about the impact of space flight on living things at the time Laika's mission was launched...
(in English, "Barker"), traveled in the Soviet Union's
Sputnik 2Sputnik 2 was the second spacecraft launched into Earth orbit, on November 3, 1957, and the first to carry a living animal, a dog named Laika. It was a 4-meter high cone-shaped capsule with a base diameter of 2 meters...
in 1957. The dog was not meant to be returned back to Earth, and died five to seven hours after launch from overheating and stress. In 1960 Soviet space dogs Belka and Strelka orbited the earth and successfully returned.
(Russian)
The American space program imported
chimpanzeeChimpanzee, sometimes colloquially chimp, is the common name for the two extant species of ape in the genus Pan. The Congo River forms the boundary between the native habitat of the two species:...
s from
AfricaAfrica is the world's second-largest and second most-populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area. With a billion people in 61 territories, it accounts for about 14.8% of the...
and sent
at least twoHam , also known as Ham the Chimp and Ham the Astrochimp, was the first hominid launched into outer space...
into space before launching their first human orbiter. The Soviet Union launched tortoises, flies, and mealworms in 1968 on
Zond 5Zond 5, a formal member of the Soviet Zond program and unmanned version of Soyuz 7K-L1 manned moon-flyby spacecraft, was launched from a Tyazheliy Sputnik in Earth parking orbit to make scientific studies during a lunar flyby and to return to Earth. On September 18, 1968, the spacecraft flew...
, which became the first animals to fly around the Moon.
Humans in space
The Soviet
cosmonautAn astronaut or cosmonaut is a person trained by a human spaceflight program to command, pilot, or serve as a crew member of a spacecraft....
Yuri GagarinYuri Alekseyevich Gagarin , Hero of the Soviet Union, was a Soviet cosmonaut. On 12 April 1961, he became the first human in outer space and the first to orbit the Earth...
became the first human in space when he entered
orbitIn physics, an orbit is the gravitationally curved path of one object around a point or another body, for example the gravitational orbit of a planet around a star....
in the Soviet Union's
VostokVostok may refer to one of the following.Spaceflight*The Soviet Vostok programme of human spaceflight.*The Vostok spacecraft used in that programme and also the basis of a reconnaissance satellite....
on april 12 1961, a day now celebrated as a holiday in Russia and in many other countries. He orbited the Earth for 108 minutes. The lead architects behind the Vostok 1 mission were the Soviet rocket scientists
Sergey KorolyovSergey Pavlovich Korolyov , , , was the head Soviet rocket engineer and designer during the Space Race between the United States and the Soviet Union in the 1950s and 1960s...
and
Kerim KerimovKerim Aliyevich Kerimov was an Azerbaijani Soviet rocket scientist, one of the founders of the Soviet space industry, and for many years a central figure in the Soviet space program. Despite his prominent role, his identity was kept a secret from the public for most of his career...
.
Twenty-three days later, on sub-orbital mission Freedom 7,
Alan ShepardAlan Bartlett Shepard, Jr. was the second person and the first American in space. He later commanded the Apollo 14 mission, and was the fifth person to walk on the moon....
entered space for the United States. On 20 February 1962
John GlennJohn Herschel Glenn Jr. is a retired United States Marine Corps pilot, a former astronaut and United States Senator who was the first American and third person to orbit the Earth. Glenn was a Marine Corps fighter pilot before joining NASA's Mercury program, NASA's original astronaut group. He...
became the first American to successfully orbit Earth, completing three orbits in Friendship 7.
The first dual-manned flights also originated in the Soviet Union, on 11 August - 15 August 1962. Soviet
Valentina TereshkovaValentina Vladimirovna Tereshkova is the first woman in space, now a retired Soviet cosmonaut. Out of more than four hundred applicants and then out of five finalists, she was selected to pilot Vostok 6 on 16 June 1963 and become the first woman to fly in space...
became the first woman in space on 16 June 1963 in
Vostok 6Vostok 6 was the first human spaceflight mission to carry a woman, cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova, into space. Data was collected on the female body's reaction to spaceflight. Like other cosmonauts on Vostok missions, she maintained a flight log, took photographs, and manually oriented the...
. Sergei Korolev, the Soviet Space Agency's chief designer, had initially scheduled further Vostok missions of longer duration, but following the announcement of the Apollo program,
Premier KhrushchevNikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev led the Soviet Union during the Cold War. He served as First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964, and as Chairman of the Council of Ministers, or Premier, from 1958 to 1964...
demanded more firsts. The first flight with more than two crew members was the Soviet Union's
Voskhod 1Voskhod 1 was the first spaceflight to carry more than one person into space, the first flight without space suits, the first to carry a scientist and a physician into space, and also set an altitude record of . The Soviet mission was specifically planned to beat the U.S. Gemini program to this...
, a modified version of the Vostok craft, took off on 12 October 1964 carrying Komarov, Feoktistov, and Yegorov. This flight also marked the first occasion on which a crew did not wear spacesuits.
Alexey Leonov, from
Voskhod 2Voskhod 2 was a Soviet manned space mission in March 1965. Two crewmembers were launched in the Vostok-based Voskhod 3KD spacecraft, which was equipped with an inflatable airlock...
, launched by the Soviet Union on 18 March 1965, carried out the first spacewalk. This mission nearly ended in disaster; Leonov had difficulty reentering the capsule, and because of a poor
retrorocketA retrorocket is a rocket engine used to provide thrust opposing the motion of a spacecraft, thereby causing it to decelerate.-History:...
fire, the ship landed 1,600 kilometers (1,000 mi) off target. By this time Khrushchev had left office, and the new Soviet leadership would not commit to an all-out lunar landing effort.
Lunar missions
Though the achievements made by the United States and the Soviet Union brought great pride to their respective nations, there was a great political determination in the United States not to be seen as a nation lagging behind in the field of space exploration. This led to then-President Kennedy's announcement in 1961 that America "should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth." Before this goal could be achieved, unmanned spacecraft had to first explore the Moon by photography and demonstrate their ability to land safely on it.
Unmanned probes
Following the Soviet success in placing the first satellite into orbit, the Americans focused their efforts on sending a probe to the Moon. They called this first attempt the
Pioneer programThe Pioneer program is a series of United States unmanned space missions that was designed for planetary exploration. There were a number of such missions in the program, but the most notable were Pioneer 10 and Pioneer 11, which explored the outer planets and left the solar system...
. The Soviet Lunar program became operational with the launch of
Luna 1Luna 1 , first known as First Cosmic Ship, then known as Mechta was the first spacecraft to reach the vicinity of the Moon and the first of the Luna program of Soviet automatic interplanetary stations successfully launched in the direction of the Moon.While traveling through the outer Van Allen...
on 4 January 1959, and
Luna 1 became the first probe to reach the vicinity of the Moon. The first craft to reach the surface of the Moon was
Luna 2Luna 2 was the second of the Soviet Union's Luna programme spacecraft launched in the direction of the Moon. It was the first spacecraft to reach the surface of the Moon. It crashed upon the lunar surface east of Mare Serenitatis near the craters Aristides, Archimedes, and Autolycus...
, launched on 12 September 1959. In addition to the Pioneer program, there were three specific American programs: the
Ranger programThe Ranger program was a series of unmanned space missions by the United States in the 1960s whose objective was to obtain the first close-up images of the surface of the Moon...
, the
Lunar Orbiter programThe Lunar Orbiter program was a series of five unmanned Lunar orbiter missions launched by the United States in 1966 through 1967 with the purpose of mapping the lunar surface before the Apollo landings. All five missions were successful, and 99% of the Moon was photographed with a resolution of...
, and the robotic
Surveyor programThe Surveyor Program was a NASA program that, from 1966 through 1968, sent seven robotic spacecraft to the surface of the Moon. Its primary goal was to demonstrate the feasibility of soft landings on the Moon. The program was implemented by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory to prepare for the...
, with the goal of locating potential Apollo landing sites on the Moon.
Lunar landing
After the Soviet successes, especially Gagarin's flight, United States President John F. Kennedy and Vice President
Lyndon B. JohnsonLyndon Baines Johnson , served as the 36th President of the United States from 1963 to 1969 after his service as the Vice President of the United States from 1961 to 1963...
looked for an American project that would capture the public’s imagination. The Apollo Program met many of their objectives and promised to defeat arguments from politicians both on the left (who favored social programs) and the right (who favored a more military project).
Apollo’s advantages included:
- economic benefits to several key states in the next election;
- closing the "missile gap
The missile gap was the term used in the United States for the perceived disparity between the number and power of the weapons in the U.S.S.R. and U.S. ballistic missile arsenals during the Cold War. The gap only existed in exaggerated estimates made by the Gaither Committee in 1957 and United...
" claimed by Kennedy during the 1960 election through dual-use technology;
- technical and scientific spin-off benefits
In private conversation with NASA Administrator
James E. WebbJames Edwin Webb was the second administrator of NASA, serving from 14 February 1961 to 7 October 1968.Webb oversaw NASA from the beginning of the Kennedy administration through the end of the Johnson administration, thus overseeing all the critical first manned launches in the Mercury through...
, Kennedy said:
Everything that we do ought to really be tied into getting onto the Moon ahead of the Russians. ...otherwise we shouldn't be spending this kind of money because I'm not that interested in space. ...the only justification for it [the cost] ...is because we hope to beat them [the Soviet Union] and demonstrate that starting behind, as we did by a couple years, by God, we passed them.
Kennedy was reminding Webb of the national security justification for the Space Race as a vital front in the Cold War. Kennedy was more explicit in his famous 1962 speech at
RiceWilliam Marsh Rice University is a private coeducational research university located in Houston, Texas, United States...
Stadium when he stated:
The Mariner spacecraft now on its way to Venus is the most intricate instrument in the history of space science. The accuracy of that shot is comparable to firing a missile from Cape Canaveral and dropping it in this stadium between the 40-yard lines. ... For space science, like nuclear science and all technology, has no conscience of its own. Whether it will become a force for good or ill depends on man, and only if the United States occupies a position of pre-eminence can we help decide whether this new ocean will be a sea of peace or a new terrifying theater of war.
Kennedy and Johnson managed to swing public opinion: by 1965, 58 percent of Americans favored Apollo, up from 33 percent in 1963. After Johnson became President in 1963, his continuing support allowed the program to succeed.
The Soviet Union showed a greater ambivalence about human visits to the Moon. Khrushchev wanted neither "defeat" by another power, nor the expense of such a project. In October 1963 he characterized the Soviet Union as "not at present planning flight by cosmonauts to the Moon", while adding that they had not dropped out of the race. A year passed before the Soviet Union committed itself to a Moon-landing attempt.
In December 1968, the United States became the front runner in the Space Race when
James LovellJames Lovell may refer to:* James Lovell , Continental Congress delegate from Massachusetts* James Lovell , last surviving decorated 'Tommy' of the First World War...
,
Frank BormanFrank Frederick Borman, II is a retired NASA astronaut and engineer, best remembered as the Commander of Apollo 8, the first mission to fly around the Moon, making him, along with fellow crew mates Jim Lovell and Bill Anders, the first of only 24 humans to do so. He was also the chief executive...
, and Bill Anders orbited the moon. In doing so, they also became the first humans to celebrate Christmas in space, and a few days later they safely splashed down.
Kennedy proposed joint programs, such as a Moon landing by American and Soviet astronauts and improved weather-monitoring satellites. Khrushchev, sensing an attempt to steal Russian space technology, rejected these ideas. Sergei Korolev, the Soviet Space Agency's chief designer who designed the R-7 rocket which sent
Sputnik into orbit, had started promoting his Soyuz craft and the
N1N1 or N-1 or 11A52 was a secret Soviet rocket intended to send Soviet cosmonauts to the Moon. It is also known in the West as the G-1e or SL-15. The Soviet classified technical name N1 was an abbreviation from the Russian word носитель...
launcher rocket that had the capacity for a manned Moon landing. Khrushchev directed Korolev's design bureau to arrange further space firsts by modifying the existing Vostok technology, while a second team started building a completely new launcher and craft, the Proton booster and the Zond, for a manned cislunar flight in 1966. In 1964 the new Soviet leadership gave Korolev the backing for a Moon landing effort and brought all manned projects under his direction. With Korolev's death and the failure of the first Soyuz flight in 1967, the coordination of the Soviet Moon landing program quickly unraveled. Korolev's first choice for a lunar landing was Vladimir Komarov, but with Komarov's death on the
Soyuz 1 in 1967,
Yuri GagarinYuri Alekseyevich Gagarin , Hero of the Soviet Union, was a Soviet cosmonaut. On 12 April 1961, he became the first human in outer space and the first to orbit the Earth...
and
Aleksei LeonovAlexey Arkhipovich Leonov is a retired Soviet/Russian cosmonaut and Air Force General who, on March 18, 1965, became the first human to conduct a space walk.-Biography:...
became the most likely candidates. However, with Gagarin's death and the successive launch failures of the N1 booster in 1969, plans for a manned landing suffered first delay and ultimately cancellation.
While unmanned Soviet probes had reached the Moon before any U.S. craft, American
Neil ArmstrongNeil Alden Armstrong is an American aviator and a former astronaut, test pilot, university professor, and United States Naval Aviator. He was the first person to set foot on the Moon. His first spaceflight was aboard Gemini 8 in 1966, for which he was the command pilot...
became the first person to set foot on the lunar surface on 21 July 1969, after landing the previous day. Commander of the
Apollo 11The Apollo 11 mission was the first human spaceflight to land on the Moon. Launched on July 16, 1969, it carried Mission Commander Neil Alden Armstrong, Command Module Pilot Michael Collins, and Lunar Module Pilot Edwin Eugene 'Buzz' Aldrin, Jr...
mission, Armstrong received backup from command-module pilot
Michael CollinsMichael Collins is an Irish American former American astronaut and test pilot. Selected as part of the third group of fourteen astronauts in 1963, he flew in space twice. His first spaceflight was Gemini 10, when he and command pilot John W. Young performed two rendezvous with different...
and lunar-module pilot
Buzz AldrinBuzz Aldrin is an American mechanical engineer, retired United States Air Force pilot and astronaut who was the Lunar Module pilot on Apollo 11, the first lunar landing...
in an event watched by over 500 million people around the world. Social commentators widely recognize the lunar landing as one of the defining moments of the 20th century, and Armstrong's words on his first touching the Moon's surface became similarly memorable:
Unlike other international rivalries, the Space Race was not motivated by the desire for territorial expansion. After its successful landings on the Moon, the United States explicitly disclaimed the right to ownership of any part of the Moon.
Missions to other planets
The Soviet Union first sent planetary probes to both
VenusVenus is the second-closest planet to the Sun, orbiting it every 224.7 Earth days. The planet is named after Venus, the Roman goddess of love and beauty. After the Moon, it is the brightest natural object in the night sky, reaching an apparent magnitude of −4.6...
and
MarsMars is the fourth planet from the Sun in the Solar System. The planet is named after Mars, the Roman god of war. It is also referred to as the "Red Planet" because of its reddish appearance, due to iron oxide prevalent on its surface....
in 1960. The first spacecraft to successfully fly by Venus, the United States'
Mariner 2Mariner 2 , a space probe to Venus, was the first successful spacecraft in the NASA Mariner program. It was a simplified version of the Block I spacecraft of the Ranger program and an exact copy of Mariner 1. The missions of Mariner 1 and 2 spacecraft are together sometimes known as the Mariner R...
, did so on 14 December 1962. It sent back surprising data on the high surface temperature and air density of Venus. Since it carried no cameras, its findings did not capture public attention as did images from space probes, which far exceeded the capacity of astronomers' Earth-based telescopes.
The Soviet Union's
Venera 7The Venera 7 was a Soviet spacecraft, part of the Venera series of probes to Venus. When it landed on the Venusian surface, it became the first man-made spacecraft to successfully land on another planet and to transmit data from there back to Earth.*Launch date/time: 1970 August 17 at 05:38...
, launched in 1970, became the first craft to land on Venus.
Venera 9Venera 9 was a USSR unmanned space mission to Venus. It consisted of an orbiter and a lander. It was launched on June 8, 1975 02:38:00 UTC and weighed 4,936 kg...
then transmitted the first pictures from the surface of another planet. These represent only two in the long
VeneraThe Venera series of probes was developed by the USSR between 1961 and 1984 to gather data from Venus. As with some of the USSR's other planetary probes, the later versions were launched in pairs with a second vehicle being launched soon after the first of the pair.Ten probes from the Venera series...
series; several other previous Venera spacecraft performed flyby operations and attempted landing missions. Seven other Venera landers followed.
The United States launched
Mariner 10Mariner 10 was a robotic space probe launched on November 3, 1973 to fly by the planets Mercury and Venus. It was launched approximately 2 years after Mariner 9 and was the last spacecraft in the Mariner program...
, which flew by Venus on its way to
MercuryFor the liquid metallic element, see Mercury .Mercury is the innermost and smallest planet in the Solar System, orbiting the Sun once every 87.969 days. The orbit of Mercury has the highest eccentricity of all the Solar System planets, and it has the smallest axial tilt. It completes three...
, in 1974. It became the first and only spacecraft to fly by Mercury for the next 34 years.
Mariner 4Mariner 4 was the fourth in a series of spacecraft, launched on November 28, 1964, intended for planetary exploration in a flyby mode and performed the first successful flyby of the planet Mars, returning the first pictures of the Martian surface...
, launched in 1965 by the United States, became the first probe to fly by
MarsMars is the fourth planet from the Sun in the Solar System. The planet is named after Mars, the Roman god of war. It is also referred to as the "Red Planet" because of its reddish appearance, due to iron oxide prevalent on its surface....
; it transmitted completely unexpected images. The first spacecraft to land on Mars,
Mars 3The Mars program was a series of Mars unmanned landers and orbiters launched by the Soviet Union in the early 1970s.The Mars 2 and Mars 3 missions consisted of identical spacecraft, each with an orbiter and an attached lander; they were the first human artifacts to touch down on Mars...
, launched in 1971 by the USSR, did not return pictures. The U.S.
VikingNASA's Viking program consisted of a pair of space probes sent to Mars, Viking 1 and Viking 2. Each vehicle was composed of two main parts, an orbiter designed to photograph the surface of Mars from orbit, and a lander designed to study the planet from the surface...
landers of 1976 transmitted the first such pictures.
Launches and docking
The American
Gemini 7Gemini 7 was a 1965 manned spaceflight in NASA's Gemini program. It was the 4th manned Gemini flight, the 12th manned American flight and the 20th spaceflight of all time .-Crew:...
and
Gemini 6AGemini 6A was a 1965 manned spaceflight in NASA's Gemini program. It was the 5th manned Gemini flight, the 13th manned American flight and the 21st spaceflight of all time . It was the last U.S...
spaceflights completed the world's first
space rendezvousA space rendezvous between two spacecraft, often between a spacecraft and a space station, is an orbital maneuver where the two arrive at the same orbit, make their orbital velocities the same, and bring them together ; it may or may not include docking.-Co-orbital launches:On August 12, 1962...
mission between two manned spacecraft on 15 December 1965. The spacecrafts came within a meter and kept station with each other for several orbits.
The U.S. craft
Gemini 8Gemini 8 was a 1966 manned spaceflight in NASA's Gemini program. The mission conducted the first docking of two spacecraft in orbit...
, performed the first orbital space docking on 16 March 1966. The first automatic space docking linked the Soviet Union's
Cosmos 186 and Cosmos 188Cosmos 186 and Cosmos 188 incorporated a Soyuz programme descent module for landing scientific instruments and test objects. The two USSR spacecraft made the first fully automated space docking in the history of space exploration on October 30, 1967. Mutual search, approach, mooring, and docking...
(two unmanned
Soyuz spacecraftSoyuz ; English: Union) is a series of spacecraft designed for the Soviet space program by the Korolyov Design Bureau. The Soyuz succeeded the Voskhod spacecraft and was originally built as part of the Soviet Manned Lunar program...
) on 30 October 1967. The first launch from the sea took place with the United States'
Scout B, on 26 April 1967.
The first
space stationA space station is an artificial structure designed for humans to live in outer space. To date, only low earth orbital stations have been implemented, otherwise known as orbital stations...
, the Soviet Union's
Salyut 1Salyut 1 was the first space station of any kind, launched on April 19, 1971.- Mission :Its first crew launched in Soyuz 10 but was unable to board it due to a failure in the docking mechanism; its second crew launched in Soyuz 11 and remained on board for 23 productive days...
, commenced operations on 7 June 1971. The lead architect behind the
Salyut 1 was the Soviet rocket scientist
Kerim KerimovKerim Aliyevich Kerimov was an Azerbaijani Soviet rocket scientist, one of the founders of the Soviet space industry, and for many years a central figure in the Soviet space program. Despite his prominent role, his identity was kept a secret from the public for most of his career...
.
Military competition
Out of view, but no less real a competition, the drive to develop space for military uses paralleled scientific efforts. Well before the launch of
Sputnik 1, both the United States and the Soviet Union started developing plans for reconnaissance satellites. The Soviet
ZenitZenit is the name of a series of military spy satellites launched by the Soviet Union between 1961 and 1994. To conceal their nature, all flights were given the public Kosmos designation...
spacecraft, which by the dual-use designed in by Korolev eventually became
VostokThe Vostok was a type of spacecraft built by the Soviet Union's space programme for human spaceflight.-Development:...
, began as a photoimaging satellite. It competed with the
United States Air ForceThe United States Air Force is the aerial warfare branch of the U.S. armed forces and one of the American uniformed services. Initially part of the United States Army, the USAF was formed as a separate branch of the military on 18 September 1947 under the National Security Act of 1947 - 80 P.L....
's Discoverer series.
Discoverer XIII provided the first payload recovered from space in August 1960 — one day ahead of the first Soviet recovered payload.
Both the United States and the Soviet Union developed major military space programs, often following a pattern whereby the United States only completed a mockup before its program ended, while the Soviet Union built, or even orbited, theirs:
- Supersonic Intercontinental Cruise Missile: Navaho
The North American SM-64 Navaho was a supersonic intercontinental cruise missile project built by North American Aviation. The program ran from 1946 to 1958 when it was cancelled in favor of intercontinental ballistic missiles.-Development:...
(test program stopped) vs. Buran cruise missileThe Buran cruise missile, designation RSS-40, was a Soviet intercontinental cruise missile capable of carrying a 3,500 kg nuclear warhead. The project was canceled before flight tests began.-Development:...
(plan)
- Small Winged Spacecraft: X-20 Dyna-Soar
The X-20 Dyna-Soar was a United States Air Force program to develop a spaceplane that could be used for a variety of military missions, including reconnaissance, bombing, space rescue, satellite maintenance, and sabotage of enemy satellites...
(mockup) vs. MiG-105 (flight-tested)
- Satellite Inspection Capsule: Blue Gemini
Blue Gemini was a United States Air Force project first proposed in August 1962 for a series of seven flights of Gemini spacecraft to enable the Air Force to gain manned spaceflight experience prior to the launch of the Manned Orbital Development System, or MODS...
(mockup) vs. SoyuzSoyuz ; English: Union) is a series of spacecraft designed for the Soviet space program by the Korolyov Design Bureau. The Soyuz succeeded the Voskhod spacecraft and was originally built as part of the Soviet Manned Lunar program...
interceptor (plan)
- Military Space Station: MOL
The Manned Orbital Laboratory was part of the United States Air Force's manned spaceflight program, a successor to the cancelled X-20 Dyna-Soar project. It was announced to the public on the same day that the Dyna-Soar program was cancelled, December 10, 1963. The program was supposedly intended...
(plan) vs. AlmazThe Almaz program was a series of military space stations launched by the Soviet Union under cover of the civilian Salyut DOS-17K program after 1971....
(flown somewhat modified as SalyutThe Salyut program was the first space station program undertaken by the Soviet Union, which consisted of a series of nine single-module space stations launched over a period of eleven years from 1971 to 1982...
2, 3, and 5)
- Military Capsule with hatch in heat shield: Gemini B (tested crewless in space) vs. VA TKS, also known as Merkur
Merkur, was the misnomer of a Soviet manned spacecraft whose conical design had features absent from other Soviet designs but found on the three early American projects. As part of the TKS spacecraft, it was never referred to as "Merkur" by its creator or design engineers and the misnomer never...
space capsule (flown crewless as part of TKSTKS spacecraft was designed by Vladimir Chelomei as a manned spacecraft launched with Proton rocket alternative to the Soyuz spacecraft to supply the military Almaz space station. Development began in 1965, but by the time the first flight articles were ready the Almaz programme had been abandoned...
)
- Ferry to Military Space Station: Gemini Ferry (plan) vs. TKS
TKS spacecraft was designed by Vladimir Chelomei as a manned spacecraft launched with Proton rocket alternative to the Soyuz spacecraft to supply the military Almaz space station. Development began in 1965, but by the time the first flight articles were ready the Almaz programme had been abandoned...
(flown crewless in space, and docked with a Salyut)
"End" of the Space Race
While the
Sputnik 1 launch can clearly be called the start of the Space Race, its end is more debatable. Most hotly contested during the 1960s, the Space Race continued apace through the U.S. Apollo moon landing of 1969. Although they followed
Apollo 11The Apollo 11 mission was the first human spaceflight to land on the Moon. Launched on July 16, 1969, it carried Mission Commander Neil Alden Armstrong, Command Module Pilot Michael Collins, and Lunar Module Pilot Edwin Eugene 'Buzz' Aldrin, Jr...
with five more manned lunar landings, American space scientists turned to new arenas.
SkylabSkylab was the United States' first space station, and the second space station visited by a human crew. It was also the only space station NASA launched alone...
was to gather data, and the
Space ShuttleThe Space Shuttle, part of the Space Transportation System , is a spacecraft operated by NASA for orbital human spaceflight missions. It began operations in the 1980s and is scheduled to be retired from service in 2010 after 134 launches...
was intended to return spaceships intact from space journeys. Russians claimed that by first sending a man into space they had won this unofficial "race," however Americans claimed that by first landing a man on the moon they had won. In any event, as the Cold War subsided, and as other nations began to develop their own space programs, the notion of a continuing "race" between the two superpowers became less real.
Both nations had developed manned military space programs. The United States Air Force had proposed using its Titan missile to launch the
Dyna-SoarThe X-20 Dyna-Soar was a United States Air Force program to develop a spaceplane that could be used for a variety of military missions, including reconnaissance, bombing, space rescue, satellite maintenance, and sabotage of enemy satellites...
hypersonic glider to use in intercepting enemy satellites. The plan for the
Manned Orbiting LaboratoryThe Manned Orbital Laboratory was part of the United States Air Force's manned spaceflight program, a successor to the cancelled X-20 Dyna-Soar project. It was announced to the public on the same day that the Dyna-Soar program was cancelled, December 10, 1963. The program was supposedly intended...
(using hardware based on the Gemini program to carry out surveillance missions) superseded Dyna-Soar, but this also suffered cancellation. The Soviet Union commissioned the
AlmazThe Almaz program was a series of military space stations launched by the Soviet Union under cover of the civilian Salyut DOS-17K program after 1971....
program for a similar manned military space station, which merged with the Salyut program.
The Space Race slowed after the Apollo landing, which many observers describe as its apex or even as its end. Others, including space historian Carole Scott and Romanian Dr. Florin Pop's
Cold War Project, feel its end, as well as the possible end of the Cold War, came most clearly with the joint Apollo-Soyuz mission of 1975. The Soviet craft
Soyuz 19 met and docked in space with America's
ApolloNASA's Apollo Program landed the first humans on Earth's moon. US President John F. Kennedy announced his support for a manned moon landing on May 25, 1961, as part of a special address to a joint session of Congress:...
, allowing astronauts from the "rival" nations to pass into each other's ships and participate in combined experimentation. Although each country's endeavors in space persisted, they went largely in different directions, and the notion of a continuing two-nation "race" became outdated after
Apollo-SoyuzThe Apollo-Soyuz Test Project was the last mission in the Apollo program and was the first joint flight of the U.S. and Soviet space programs. The mission took place in July 1975...
.
However, the Soviet leadership was alarmed at the prospect of U.S. Air Force involvement with the
Space ShuttleThe Space Shuttle, part of the Space Transportation System , is a spacecraft operated by NASA for orbital human spaceflight missions. It began operations in the 1980s and is scheduled to be retired from service in 2010 after 134 launches...
program and began the competing
BuranThe Buran spacecraft , GRAU index 11F35 K1, was the only completed and operational space shuttle vehicle from the Soviet Buran program. Clearly influenced by the earlier American Space Shuttle design, the Buran completed one unmanned spaceflight in 1988 before the cancellation of the Soviet shuttle...
and
EnergiaEnergia was a Soviet rocket that was designed by NPO Energia to serve as a heavy-lift expendable launch system as well as a booster for the Buran Space Shuttle. It had the capacity to place about 88 metric tons in Low Earth orbit....
projects. In the early 1980s the commencement of the U.S.
Strategic Defense InitiativeThe Strategic Defense Initiative was a proposal by U.S. President Ronald Reagan on March 23, 1983 to use ground and space-based systems to protect the United States from attack by strategic nuclear ballistic missiles. The initiative focused on strategic defense rather than the prior strategic...
further escalated competition that only resolved with the collapse of the Eastern Bloc in 1989.
Timeline (1957-1975)
| Date |
Significance |
Country-Agency |
Mission Name |
| August 21, 1957 |
First intercontinental ballistic missileAn intercontinental ballistic missile, or ICBM, is a long-range ballistic missile typically designed for nuclear weapons delivery, that is, delivering one or more nuclear warheads...
(ICBM) |
USSR |
R-7 Semyorka/SS-6 SapwoodThe R-7 Semyorka was the world's first true intercontinental ballistic missile and was deployed by the Soviet Union during the Cold War from 1959 to 1968. To the West it was known by the NATO reporting name SS-6 Sapwood and within the Soviet Union by the GRAU index 8K71...
|
| October 4, 1957 |
First artificial satellite
First signals from space |
USSR |
Sputnik 1Sputnik 1 was the first Earth-orbiting artificial satellite. It was launched into an elliptical low earth orbit by the Soviet Union on 4 October 1957, and was the first in a series of satellites collectively known as the Sputnik program...
|
| November 3, 1957 |
First animal in orbitIn physics, an orbit is the gravitationally curved path of one object around a point or another body, for example the gravitational orbit of a planet around a star....
, the dog LaikaLaika was a Soviet space dog who became the first animal to orbit the Earth and the first orbital death. Little was known about the impact of space flight on living things at the time Laika's mission was launched...
|
USSR |
Sputnik 2Sputnik 2 was the second spacecraft launched into Earth orbit, on November 3, 1957, and the first to carry a living animal, a dog named Laika. It was a 4-meter high cone-shaped capsule with a base diameter of 2 meters...
|
| January 31, 1958 |
First detection of Van Allen belts The Van Allen radiation belt is a torus of energetic charged particles around Earth, which is held in place by Earth's magnetic field. This field is not uniformly distributed around the Earth. On the sunward side, it is compressed because of the solar wind, while on the other side it is elongated...
|
US-ABMA |
Explorer 1 |
| March 17, 1958 |
First solar powered satellite |
US-NRL |
Vanguard 1Vanguard 1 was the fourth artificial Earth satellite launched and the first satellite to be solar powered. Although communication with it was lost in 1964, it remains the oldest manmade satellite still in orbit and as such is the oldest piece of a cloud of space debris orbiting Earth...
|
| December 18, 1958 |
First communications satellite A communications satellite is an artificial satellite stationed in space for the purpose of telecommunications...
|
US-ABMA |
Project SCORE Project SCORE was the world’s first communications satellite. Launched in an Atlas rocket on December 18 1958, SCORE provided a first test of a communications relay system in space and captured world attention by broadcasting a Christmas message via short wave frequency from U.S. President Dwight D...
|
| January 2, 1959 |
First firing of a rocket in Earth orbit
First reaching Earth escape velocityIn physics, escape velocity is the speed where the kinetic energy of an object is equal to the magnitude of its gravitational potential energy, as calculated by the equation,...
First detection of solar windThe solar wind is a stream of charged particles ejected from the upper atmosphere of the sun. It consists mostly of electrons and protons with energies of about 1 keV. The stream of particles varies in temperature and speed with the passage of time...
|
USSR |
Luna 1Luna 1 , first known as First Cosmic Ship, then known as Mechta was the first spacecraft to reach the vicinity of the Moon and the first of the Luna program of Soviet automatic interplanetary stations successfully launched in the direction of the Moon.While traveling through the outer Van Allen...
|
| January 4, 1959 |
First man-made object in heliocentric orbit A heliocentric orbit is an orbit around the Sun. In our Solar System, all planets, comets, and asteroids are in such orbits, as are many artificial probes and pieces of debris. Ganymede, by contrast, is not in a heliocentric orbit as it orbits Jupiter...
|
USSR |
Luna 1Luna 1 , first known as First Cosmic Ship, then known as Mechta was the first spacecraft to reach the vicinity of the Moon and the first of the Luna program of Soviet automatic interplanetary stations successfully launched in the direction of the Moon.While traveling through the outer Van Allen...
|
| February 17, 1959 |
First weather satellite A weather satellite is a type of satellite that is primarily used to monitor the weather and climate of the Earth. Satellites can be either polar orbiting, seeing the same swath of the Earth every 12 hours, or geostationary, hovering over the same spot on Earth by orbiting over the equator while...
|
US-NASAThe National Aeronautics and Space Administration is an agency of the United States government, responsible for the nation's public space program. NASA was established by the National Aeronautics and Space Act on July 29, 1958, replacing its predecessor, the National Advisory Committee for...
(NRL)1 |
Vanguard 2 Vanguard 2 or Vanguard II is an earth-orbiting satellite launched February 17, 1959 by the Vanguard SLV 4 launch vehicle as part of Project Vanguard....
|
| February 28, 1959 |
First satellite in a Polar orbit A polar orbit is an orbit in which a satellite passes above or nearly above both poles of the body being orbited on each revolution. It therefore has an inclination of 90 degrees to the equator...
|
US-DARPA |
Discoverer 1Corona was a US military reconnaissance satellite system operated by the CIA Directorate of Science & Technology with substantial assistance from the US Air Force, used for photographic surveillance of the Soviet Union, China and other areas from June 1959 until May 1972...
|
| August 7, 1959 |
First photograph of Earth from orbit |
US-NASAThe National Aeronautics and Space Administration is an agency of the United States government, responsible for the nation's public space program. NASA was established by the National Aeronautics and Space Act on July 29, 1958, replacing its predecessor, the National Advisory Committee for...
|
Explorer 6Explorer 6 was a United States satellite launched on August 7, 1959. It was a small, spheroidal satellite designed to study trapped radiation of various energies, galactic cosmic rays, geomagnetism, radio propagation in the upper atmosphere, and the flux of micrometeorites...
|
| September 13, 1959 |
First impact into another world (the MoonThe Moon is Earth's only natural satellite and the fifth largest satellite in the Solar System. The average centre-to-centre distance from the Earth to the Moon is , about thirty times the diameter of the Earth. The common centre of mass of the system is located at about —a quarter the Earth's...
) |
USSR |
Luna 2Luna 2 was the second of the Soviet Union's Luna programme spacecraft launched in the direction of the Moon. It was the first spacecraft to reach the surface of the Moon. It crashed upon the lunar surface east of Mare Serenitatis near the craters Aristides, Archimedes, and Autolycus...
|
| October 4, 1959 |
First photos of far side of the Moon The far side of the Moon is the lunar hemisphere that is permanently turned away from the Earth. The far hemisphere was first photographed by the Soviet Luna 3 probe in 1959, and was first directly observed by human eyes when the Apollo 8 mission orbited the Moon in 1968. The rugged terrain is...
|
USSR |
Luna 3The Soviet space probe Luna 3 was the third spacecraft sent successfully to the Moon, and it was an early feat in the human exploration of outer space...
|
| April 1, 1960 |
First Imaging weather satellite A weather satellite is a type of satellite that is primarily used to monitor the weather and climate of the Earth. Satellites can be either polar orbiting, seeing the same swath of the Earth every 12 hours, or geostationary, hovering over the same spot on Earth by orbiting over the equator while...
|
US-NASAThe National Aeronautics and Space Administration is an agency of the United States government, responsible for the nation's public space program. NASA was established by the National Aeronautics and Space Act on July 29, 1958, replacing its predecessor, the National Advisory Committee for...
|
TIROS-1 TIROS I was the first successful weather satellite, and the first of a series of Television Infrared Observation Satellites. It was launched at 6:40 AM EST on April 1, 1960 from Cape Canaveral, Florida, in the United States....
|
| July 5, 1960 |
First reconnaissance satellite |
US-NRL |
GRAB-1 The Galactic Radiation and Background series of intelligence satellites were operated by the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory shortly after the Cold War U-2 incident of 1960. The satellites carried two sets of instruments: an unclassified experiment and a then-classified payload to collect...
|
| August 11, 1960 |
First satellite payload recovered intact from orbit |
US-Air Force |
Discoverer 13Corona was a US military reconnaissance satellite system operated by the CIA Directorate of Science & Technology with substantial assistance from the US Air Force, used for photographic surveillance of the Soviet Union, China and other areas from June 1959 until May 1972...
|
| August 12, 1960 |
First passive communications satellite |
US-NASAThe National Aeronautics and Space Administration is an agency of the United States government, responsible for the nation's public space program. NASA was established by the National Aeronautics and Space Act on July 29, 1958, replacing its predecessor, the National Advisory Committee for...
|
Echo 1AThe Echo satellites were NASA's first passive communications satellite experiment. Each spacecraft was designed as a metallized balloon satellite acting as a passive reflector of microwave signals...
|
| August 18, 1960 |
First photo reconnaissance satellite |
US-Air ForceThe United States Air Force is the aerial warfare branch of the U.S. armed forces and one of the American uniformed services. Initially part of the United States Army, the USAF was formed as a separate branch of the military on 18 September 1947 under the National Security Act of 1947 - 80 P.L....
|
KH-1 9009Corona was a US military reconnaissance satellite system operated by the CIA Directorate of Science & Technology with substantial assistance from the US Air Force, used for photographic surveillance of the Soviet Union, China and other areas from June 1959 until May 1972...
|
| August 19, 1960 |
First plants and animals in space to return alive |
USSR |
Sputnik 5 Sputnik 5 was the first spaceflight to send animals into orbit and return them safely back to Earth. Launched on August 19, 1960 it paved the way for the first human orbital flight less than eight months later with Vostok 1. Sputnik 5 was a USSR artificial Earth satellite from the Sputnik space...
|
| 1961 |
First launch from orbit
First mid-course corrections
First spin-stabilisationSpin-stabilisation is the method of stabilizing a satellite by means of spin. For most satellite applications this approach has been superseded by three-axis stabilisation. It is also used in non-satellite applications such as rifle and artillery....
|
USSR |
Venera 1On February 12 1961, 00:34:36 UTC, the first planetary probe was launched to Venus by the Soviet Union. The Venus-1 Automatic Interplanetary Station, or Venera 1, was a 643.5 kg probe consisting of a cylindrical body 1.05 meter in diameter topped by a dome, totaling 2.035 meters in height...
|
| April 12, 1961 |
First manned spaceflight (Yuri GagarinYuri Alekseyevich Gagarin , Hero of the Soviet Union, was a Soviet cosmonaut. On 12 April 1961, he became the first human in outer space and the first to orbit the Earth...
)
First manned orbital flight |
USSR |
Vostok 1Vostok 1 was the first human spaceflight. The Vostok 3KA spacecraft was launched on April 12, 1961, taking into space Yuri Gagarin, a cosmonaut from the Soviet Union. The Vostok 1 mission was the first time anyone had journeyed into outer space and the first time anyone had entered into orbit...
|
| March 7, 1962 |
First orbital solar observatory |
US-NASAThe National Aeronautics and Space Administration is an agency of the United States government, responsible for the nation's public space program. NASA was established by the National Aeronautics and Space Act on July 29, 1958, replacing its predecessor, the National Advisory Committee for...
|
OSO-1 The Orbiting Solar Observatory Program was the name of a series of nine NASA satellites primarily intended to study the Sun, though they also included important non-solar experiments. Eight were launched successfully between 1962 and 1975 using Delta rockets. Their primary mission was to observe...
|
| August 12, 1962 |
First time that more than one manned spacecraft were in orbit at the same time and established ship-to-ship radio contact. |
USSR |
Vostok 3Vostok 3 was a spaceflight of the Soviet space program intended to determine the ability of the human body to function in conditions of weightlessness and test the endurance of the Vostok 3KA spacecraft over longer flights...
and Vostok 4Vostok 4 was a mission in the Soviet space program. It was launched a day after Vostok 3 with cosmonaut Pavel Popovich on board - the first time that more than one manned spacecraft were in orbit at the same time...
|
| December 14, 1962 |
First planetary flyby (VenusVenus is the second-closest planet to the Sun, orbiting it every 224.7 Earth days. The planet is named after Venus, the Roman goddess of love and beauty. After the Moon, it is the brightest natural object in the night sky, reaching an apparent magnitude of −4.6...
closest approach 34,773 kilometers) |
US-NASAThe National Aeronautics and Space Administration is an agency of the United States government, responsible for the nation's public space program. NASA was established by the National Aeronautics and Space Act on July 29, 1958, replacing its predecessor, the National Advisory Committee for...
|
Mariner 2Mariner 2 , a space probe to Venus, was the first successful spacecraft in the NASA Mariner program. It was a simplified version of the Block I spacecraft of the Ranger program and an exact copy of Mariner 1. The missions of Mariner 1 and 2 spacecraft are together sometimes known as the Mariner R...
|
| June 16, 1963 |
First woman in space (Valentina TereshkovaValentina Vladimirovna Tereshkova is the first woman in space, now a retired Soviet cosmonaut. Out of more than four hundred applicants and then out of five finalists, she was selected to pilot Vostok 6 on 16 June 1963 and become the first woman to fly in space...
) |
USSR |
Vostok 6Vostok 6 was the first human spaceflight mission to carry a woman, cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova, into space. Data was collected on the female body's reaction to spaceflight. Like other cosmonauts on Vostok missions, she maintained a flight log, took photographs, and manually oriented the...
|
| July 19, 1963 |
First reusable manned spacecraft (suborbital) |
US-NASAThe National Aeronautics and Space Administration is an agency of the United States government, responsible for the nation's public space program. NASA was established by the National Aeronautics and Space Act on July 29, 1958, replacing its predecessor, the National Advisory Committee for...
|
X-15 Flight 90-Crew:-Mission parameters:*Mass: 15,195 kg fueled; 6,577 kg burnout; 6,260 kg landed*Maximum Altitude: 106.01 km*Range: 534 km*Burn Time: 84.6 seconds*Mach: 5.50*Launch Vehicle: NB-52B Bomber #008-Mission highlights:...
|
| July 26, 1963 |
First geosynchronous satellite A geosynchronous satellite is a satellite whose orbital track on the Earth repeats regularly over points on the Earth over time. If such a satellite's orbit lies over the equator and the orbit is circular, it is called a geostationary satellite. The orbits of the satellites are known as the...
|
US-NASAThe National Aeronautics and Space Administration is an agency of the United States government, responsible for the nation's public space program. NASA was established by the National Aeronautics and Space Act on July 29, 1958, replacing its predecessor, the National Advisory Committee for...
|
Syncom 2Syncom started as a 1961 NASA program for active geosynchronous communication satellites, all of which were developed and manufactured by Hughes Space and Communications...
|
| December 5, 1963 |
First satellite navigation systemGlobal Navigation Satellite Systems is the standard generic term for satellite navigation systems that provide autonomous geo-spatial positioning with global coverage. GNSS allows small electronic receivers to determine their location to within a few metres using time signals transmitted along a...
|
US-NavyThe United States Navy is the sea branch of the U.S. Armed Forces. It is one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. As of 31 December 2008, the U.S. Navy had about 331,682 personnel on active duty and 124,000 in the Navy Reserve. It operates 283 ships in active service and more than...
|
NAVSAT The TRANSIT system, also known as NAVSAT , was the first satellite navigation system to be used operationally...
|
| August 19, 1964 |
First geostationary satellite A geostationary orbit is a geosynchronous orbit directly above the Earth's equator , with a period equal to the Earth's rotational period and an orbital eccentricity of approximately zero...
|
US-NASAThe National Aeronautics and Space Administration is an agency of the United States government, responsible for the nation's public space program. NASA was established by the National Aeronautics and Space Act on July 29, 1958, replacing its predecessor, the National Advisory Committee for...
|
Syncom 3Syncom started as a 1961 NASA program for active geosynchronous communication satellites, all of which were developed and manufactured by Hughes Space and Communications...
|
| October 12, 1964 |
First multi-man crew (3 members) |
USSR |
Voskhod 1Voskhod 1 was the first spaceflight to carry more than one person into space, the first flight without space suits, the first to carry a scientist and a physician into space, and also set an altitude record of . The Soviet mission was specifically planned to beat the U.S. Gemini program to this...
|
| March 18, 1965 |
First extra-vehicular activity Extra-vehicular activity is work done by an astronaut away from the Earth, and outside of a spacecraft. The term most commonly applies to an EVA made outside a craft orbiting Earth , but also applies to an EVA made on the surface of the Moon...
|
USSR |
Voskhod 2Voskhod 2 was a Soviet manned space mission in March 1965. Two crewmembers were launched in the Vostok-based Voskhod 3KD spacecraft, which was equipped with an inflatable airlock...
|
| July 14, 1965 |
First MarsMars is the fourth planet from the Sun in the Solar System. The planet is named after Mars, the Roman god of war. It is also referred to as the "Red Planet" because of its reddish appearance, due to iron oxide prevalent on its surface....
flyby (closest approach 9,846 kilometers) |
US-NASAThe National Aeronautics and Space Administration is an agency of the United States government, responsible for the nation's public space program. NASA was established by the National Aeronautics and Space Act on July 29, 1958, replacing its predecessor, the National Advisory Committee for...
|
Mariner 4Mariner 4 was the fourth in a series of spacecraft, launched on November 28, 1964, intended for planetary exploration in a flyby mode and performed the first successful flyby of the planet Mars, returning the first pictures of the Martian surface...
|
| December 15, 1965 |
First orbital rendezvous A space rendezvous between two spacecraft, often between a spacecraft and a space station, is an orbital maneuver where the two arrive at the same orbit, make their orbital velocities the same, and bring them together ; it may or may not include docking.-Co-orbital launches:On August 12, 1962...
(parallel flight, no docking) |
US-NASAThe National Aeronautics and Space Administration is an agency of the United States government, responsible for the nation's public space program. NASA was established by the National Aeronautics and Space Act on July 29, 1958, replacing its predecessor, the National Advisory Committee for...
|
Gemini 6AGemini 6A was a 1965 manned spaceflight in NASA's Gemini program. It was the 5th manned Gemini flight, the 13th manned American flight and the 21st spaceflight of all time . It was the last U.S...
/Gemini 7Gemini 7 was a 1965 manned spaceflight in NASA's Gemini program. It was the 4th manned Gemini flight, the 12th manned American flight and the 20th spaceflight of all time .-Crew:...
|
| February 3, 1966 |
First soft landing A soft landing is any type of aircraft or rocket landing that does not result in the destruction of the vehicle or anything onboard. Unlike a hard landing, soft landings are very smooth and steady. They are often called 'good landings' because of the smooth way the aircraft lands....
on another world (the Moon)
First photos from another world |
USSR |
Luna 9Luna 9 , was an unmanned space mission of the Soviet Union's Luna program. On February 3, 1966 the Luna 9 spacecraft was the first spacecraft to achieve a lunar soft landing and to transmit photographic data to Earth....
|
| March 1, 1966 |
First impact into another planet (Venus) |
USSR |
Venera 3 Venera 3 was a Venera program space probe that was built and launched by the Soviet Union to explore the surface of Venus. It was launched on November 16, 1965 at 04:19 UTC from Baikonur, Kazakhstan....
|
| March 16, 1966 |
First orbital rendezvous A space rendezvous between two spacecraft, often between a spacecraft and a space station, is an orbital maneuver where the two arrive at the same orbit, make their orbital velocities the same, and bring them together ; it may or may not include docking.-Co-orbital launches:On August 12, 1962...
(docking) |
US-NASAThe National Aeronautics and Space Administration is an agency of the United States government, responsible for the nation's public space program. NASA was established by the National Aeronautics and Space Act on July 29, 1958, replacing its predecessor, the National Advisory Committee for...
|
Gemini 8Gemini 8 was a 1966 manned spaceflight in NASA's Gemini program. The mission conducted the first docking of two spacecraft in orbit...
/Agena target vehicleThe Agena target vehicle was a spacecraft used by NASA during its Gemini program to develop and practice orbital space rendezvous and docking techniques in preparation for the Apollo program lunar missions....
|
| April 3, 1966 |
First artificial satellite around another world (the Moon) |
USSR |
Luna 10Luna 10 was an unmanned space mission of the Luna program, also called Lunik 10.The Luna 10 spacecraft was launched towards the Moon from an Earth orbiting platform on March 31, 1966. It was the first artificial satellite of the Moon...
|
| April 23, 1967 |
First spaceflight casualty |
USSR |
Soyuz 1Soyuz 1 was a manned spaceflight of the Soviet space program. Launched into orbit on April 23, 1967 carrying cosmonaut Colonel Vladimir Komarov, Soyuz 1 was the first flight of the Soyuz spacecraft. Komarov was killed when the spacecraft crashed during its return to Earth after a mission beset...
|
| October 30, 1967 |
First unmanned rendezvous A space rendezvous between two spacecraft, often between a spacecraft and a space station, is an orbital maneuver where the two arrive at the same orbit, make their orbital velocities the same, and bring them together ; it may or may not include docking.-Co-orbital launches:On August 12, 1962...
with docking |
USSR |
Cosmos 186/Cosmos 188 |
| 7 December 1968 |
First orbital ultravioletUltraviolet light is electromagnetic radiation with a wavelength shorter than that of visible light, but longer than x-rays, in the range 10 nm to 400 nm, and energies from 3 eV to 124 eV...
observatory |
US-NASAThe National Aeronautics and Space Administration is an agency of the United States government, responsible for the nation's public space program. NASA was established by the National Aeronautics and Space Act on July 29, 1958, replacing its predecessor, the National Advisory Committee for...
|
OAO-2 The Orbiting Astronomical Observatory satellites were a series of four space observatories launched by NASA between 1966 and 1972, which provided the first high-quality observations of many objects in ultraviolet light...
|
| December 21, 1968 |
First human orbiting of another celestial body (Moon) |
US-NASAThe National Aeronautics and Space Administration is an agency of the United States government, responsible for the nation's public space program. NASA was established by the National Aeronautics and Space Act on July 29, 1958, replacing its predecessor, the National Advisory Committee for...
|
Apollo 8Apollo 8 was the first human spaceflight mission to achieve a velocity sufficient to allow escape from the gravitational field of planet Earth; the first to be captured by and escape from the gravitational field of another celestial body; and the first crewed voyage to return to planet Earth from...
|
| January 16, 1969 |
First manned docking and exchange of crew |
USSR |
Soyuz 4Soyuz 4 was launched on January 14, 1969. On board was cosmonaut Vladimir Shatalov on his first flight. The aim of the mission was to dock with Soyuz 5, transfer two crew members from that spacecraft, and return to Earth. The last three Soyuz flights had attempted this but all had failed for...
/Soyuz 5Soyuz 5 was a Soyuz spacecraft launched by the Soviet Union on January 15, 1969, which docked with Soyuz 4 in orbit. It was the first-ever docking of two manned spacecraft, and the first-ever transfer of crew from one space vehicle to another, the only time a transfer was accomplished with a space...
|
| July 21, 1969 |
First humans on the Moon and first space launch from a celestial body |
US-NASAThe National Aeronautics and Space Administration is an agency of the United States government, responsible for the nation's public space program. NASA was established by the National Aeronautics and Space Act on July 29, 1958, replacing its predecessor, the National Advisory Committee for...
|
Apollo 11The Apollo 11 mission was the first human spaceflight to land on the Moon. Launched on July 16, 1969, it carried Mission Commander Neil Alden Armstrong, Command Module Pilot Michael Collins, and Lunar Module Pilot Edwin Eugene 'Buzz' Aldrin, Jr...
|
| November 19, 1969 |
First rendezvous A space rendezvous between two spacecraft, often between a spacecraft and a space station, is an orbital maneuver where the two arrive at the same orbit, make their orbital velocities the same, and bring them together ; it may or may not include docking.-Co-orbital launches:On August 12, 1962...
on the surface of a celestial body |
US-NASAThe National Aeronautics and Space Administration is an agency of the United States government, responsible for the nation's public space program. NASA was established by the National Aeronautics and Space Act on July 29, 1958, replacing its predecessor, the National Advisory Committee for...
|
Apollo 12Apollo 12 was the sixth manned mission in the Apollo program and the second to land on the Moon. The mission was commanded by Charles "Pete" Conrad. It was launched on 14 November 1969, four months after Apollo 11. Pete Conrad and Alan L. Bean performed just over one day and seven hours of lunar...
/Surveyor 3Surveyor 3 was the third lander of the Surveyor program that explored the Moon. Launched on April 17, 1967, Surveyor 3 landed April 20, 1967 at the Mare Cognitum portion of the Oceanus Procellarum. A total of 6,315 images were transmitted to Earth....
|
| September 24, 1970 |
First automatic sample return A sample return mission is a spacecraft mission with the goal of returning tangible samples from an extraterrestrial location to Earth for analysis. Sample return missions may bring back merely atoms and molecules or a deposit of complex compounds such as dirt and rocks...
from the Moon |
USSR |
Luna 16Luna 16 was an unmanned space mission of the Luna program, also called Lunnik 16 .Luna 16 was the first robotic probe to land on the Moon and return a sample to Earth...
|
| November 23, 1970 |
First lunar roverThe Lunar Roving Vehicle or lunar rover was a 4-wheeled rover used on the Moon during the last three missions of the Apollo program in the early 1970s....
|
USSR |
Lunokhod 1 Lunokhod 1 was the first of two unmanned lunar rovers landed on the Moon by the Soviet Union as part of its Lunokhod program. The spacecraft which carried Lunokhod 1 was named Luna 17...
|
| December 12, 1970 |
First X-ray orbital observatory A space observatory is any instrument in outer space which is used for observation of distant planets, galaxies, and other outer space objects...
|
US-NASAThe National Aeronautics and Space Administration is an agency of the United States government, responsible for the nation's public space program. NASA was established by the National Aeronautics and Space Act on July 29, 1958, replacing its predecessor, the National Advisory Committee for...
|
Uhuru (satellite) Uhuru was the first satellite launched specifically for the purpose of X-ray astronomy. It was also known as the X-ray Explorer Satellite, SAS-1 , or Explorer 42.The observatory was launched on 12 December 1970 into an initial orbit of about 560 km apogee, 520 km perigee, 3 degrees...
|
| December 15, 1970 |
First soft landing on another planet (Venus)
First signals from another planet |
USSR |
Venera 7The Venera 7 was a Soviet spacecraft, part of the Venera series of probes to Venus. When it landed on the Venusian surface, it became the first man-made spacecraft to successfully land on another planet and to transmit data from there back to Earth.*Launch date/time: 1970 August 17 at 05:38...
|
| April 23, 1971 |
First space station A space station is an artificial structure designed for humans to live in outer space. To date, only low earth orbital stations have been implemented, otherwise known as orbital stations...
|
USSR |
Salyut 1Salyut 1 was the first space station of any kind, launched on April 19, 1971.- Mission :Its first crew launched in Soyuz 10 but was unable to board it due to a failure in the docking mechanism; its second crew launched in Soyuz 11 and remained on board for 23 productive days...
|
| June, 1971 |
First Manned orbital observatory A space observatory is any instrument in outer space which is used for observation of distant planets, galaxies, and other outer space objects...
|
USSR |
Orion 1 The Orion 1 Space Observatory and Orion 2 Space Observatory were space observatories installed in spacecraft launched by the space program of the Soviet Union during the 1970s.- Orion 1 :...
|
| November 14, 1971 |
First orbit around another planet (MarsMars is the fourth planet from the Sun in the Solar System. The planet is named after Mars, the Roman god of war. It is also referred to as the "Red Planet" because of its reddish appearance, due to iron oxide prevalent on its surface....
) |
US-NASAThe National Aeronautics and Space Administration is an agency of the United States government, responsible for the nation's public space program. NASA was established by the National Aeronautics and Space Act on July 29, 1958, replacing its predecessor, the National Advisory Committee for...
|
Mariner 9Mariner 9 was a NASA space probe orbiter that helped in the exploration of Mars and was part of the Mariner program...
|
| November 27, 1971 |
First impact into Mars |
USSR |
Mars 2 The Mars program was a series of Mars unmanned landers and orbiters launched by the Soviet Union in the early 1970s.The Mars 2 and Mars 3 missions consisted of identical spacecraft, each with an orbiter and an attached lander; they were the first human artifacts to impact the surface of Mars...
|
| December 2, 1971 |
First soft Mars landing
First signals from Mars surface |
USSR |
Mars 3 The Mars program was a series of Mars unmanned landers and orbiters launched by the Soviet Union in the early 1970s.The Mars 2 and Mars 3 missions consisted of identical spacecraft, each with an orbiter and an attached lander; they were the first human artifacts to touch down on Mars...
|
| March 3, 1972 |
First human made object sent on escape trajectory away from the Sun |
US-NASAThe National Aeronautics and Space Administration is an agency of the United States government, responsible for the nation's public space program. NASA was established by the National Aeronautics and Space Act on July 29, 1958, replacing its predecessor, the National Advisory Committee for...
|
Pioneer 10Pioneer 10 was the first spacecraft to travel through the asteroid belt, which it entered on July 15, 1972, and to make direct observations of Jupiter, which it passed by on December 3, 1973. It was launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station's Launch Complex 36A on March 3, 1972 at 01:49:00 UTC...
|
| July 15, 1972 |
First mission to enter the asteroid belt and leave inner solar system |
US-NASAThe National Aeronautics and Space Administration is an agency of the United States government, responsible for the nation's public space program. NASA was established by the National Aeronautics and Space Act on July 29, 1958, replacing its predecessor, the National Advisory Committee for...
|
Pioneer 10Pioneer 10 was the first spacecraft to travel through the asteroid belt, which it entered on July 15, 1972, and to make direct observations of Jupiter, which it passed by on December 3, 1973. It was launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station's Launch Complex 36A on March 3, 1972 at 01:49:00 UTC...
|
| 15 November 1972 |
First orbital gamma ray Gamma rays are electromagnetic radiation of high frequency . They are produced by sub-atomic particle interactions, such as electron-positron annihilation, neutral pion decay, radioactive decay, fusion, fission or inverse Compton scattering in astrophysical processes...
observatory |
US-NASAThe National Aeronautics and Space Administration is an agency of the United States government, responsible for the nation's public space program. NASA was established by the National Aeronautics and Space Act on July 29, 1958, replacing its predecessor, the National Advisory Committee for...
|
SAS-2 The Second Small Astronomy Satellite, also known also as SAS-2, SAS B or Explorer 48, was a NASA gamma ray telescope. It was launched on 15 November 1972 into low Earth orbit with a periapsis of 443 km and an apoapsis of 632 km)...
|
| December 3, 1973 |
First Jupiter flyby (at 130,000 km) |
US-NASAThe National Aeronautics and Space Administration is an agency of the United States government, responsible for the nation's public space program. NASA was established by the National Aeronautics and Space Act on July 29, 1958, replacing its predecessor, the National Advisory Committee for...
|
Pioneer 10Pioneer 10 was the first spacecraft to travel through the asteroid belt, which it entered on July 15, 1972, and to make direct observations of Jupiter, which it passed by on December 3, 1973. It was launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station's Launch Complex 36A on March 3, 1972 at 01:49:00 UTC...
|
| February 5, 1974 |
VenusVenus is the second-closest planet to the Sun, orbiting it every 224.7 Earth days. The planet is named after Venus, the Roman goddess of love and beauty. After the Moon, it is the brightest natural object in the night sky, reaching an apparent magnitude of −4.6...
flyby at 5768 kilometers, first gravitational assist manoeuvre |
US-NASAThe National Aeronautics and Space Administration is an agency of the United States government, responsible for the nation's public space program. NASA was established by the National Aeronautics and Space Act on July 29, 1958, replacing its predecessor, the National Advisory Committee for...
|
Mariner 10Mariner 10 was a robotic space probe launched on November 3, 1973 to fly by the planets Mercury and Venus. It was launched approximately 2 years after Mariner 9 and was the last spacecraft in the Mariner program...
|
| March 29, 1974 |
First MercuryFor the liquid metallic element, see Mercury .Mercury is the innermost and smallest planet in the Solar System, orbiting the Sun once every 87.969 days. The orbit of Mercury has the highest eccentricity of all the Solar System planets, and it has the smallest axial tilt. It completes three...
flyby at 703 kilometers |
US-NASAThe National Aeronautics and Space Administration is an agency of the United States government, responsible for the nation's public space program. NASA was established by the National Aeronautics and Space Act on July 29, 1958, replacing its predecessor, the National Advisory Committee for...
|
Mariner 10Mariner 10 was a robotic space probe launched on November 3, 1973 to fly by the planets Mercury and Venus. It was launched approximately 2 years after Mariner 9 and was the last spacecraft in the Mariner program...
|
| July 15, 1975 |
First multinational manned mission |
USSR
US-NASAThe National Aeronautics and Space Administration is an agency of the United States government, responsible for the nation's public space program. NASA was established by the National Aeronautics and Space Act on July 29, 1958, replacing its predecessor, the National Advisory Committee for...
|
Apollo-Soyuz Test ProjectThe Apollo-Soyuz Test Project was the last mission in the Apollo program and was the first joint flight of the U.S. and Soviet space programs. The mission took place in July 1975...
|
Organization, funding, and economic impact
The huge expenditures and
bureaucracyBureaucracy is the collective organizational structure, procedures, protocols, and set of regulations in place to manage activity, usually in large organizations and government...
needed to organize successful space exploration led to the creation of national space agencies. The United States and the Soviet Union developed programs focused solely on the scientific and industrial requirements for these efforts.
On 29 July 1958, President Eisenhower signed the
National Aeronautics and Space ActThe National Aeronautics and Space Act is the United States federal statute that created the National Aeronautics and Space Administration . The Act, which followed close on the heels of the Soviet Union's launch of Sputnik, was drafted by the United States House Select Committee on Astronautics...
, establishing the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (
NASAThe National Aeronautics and Space Administration is an agency of the United States government, responsible for the nation's public space program. NASA was established by the National Aeronautics and Space Act on July 29, 1958, replacing its predecessor, the National Advisory Committee for...
). When it began operations on 1 October 1958, NASA consisted mainly of the four laboratories and some 8,000 employees of the government's 46-year-old research agency for aeronautics, the
National Advisory Committee for AeronauticsThe National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics was a U.S. federal agency founded on March 3, 1915 to undertake, promote, and institutionalize aeronautical research. On October 1, 1958 the agency was dissolved, and its assets and personnel transferred to the newly created National Aeronautics and...
(NACA). While its predecessor, NACA, operated on a
US$The United States dollar is the unit of currency of the United States. The U.S. dollar is normally abbreviated as the dollar sign, $, or as USD or US$ to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies and from others that use the $ symbol. It is divided into 100 cents .The U.S...
5 million budget, the
NASA budgetEach year, the United States Congress passes a Federal Budget detailing where federal tax money will be spent in the coming fiscal year.The following charts detail the amount of federal funding allotted to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration each year over its past fifty year history...
rapidly accelerated to US$5 billion per year, including huge sums for subcontractors from the private sector. The Apollo 11 Moon landing, the high point of NASA's success, cost an estimated 20 to 25 billion dollars.
The amount spent by U.S. on the space race from 1957 - 1975 is estimated to be about $100 billion in 2004 inflation adjusted dollars.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4031857/
Lack of reliable statistics makes it difficult to compare U.S. and Soviet Union space spending, especially during the Khrushchev years. However in 1989, the Chief of Staff of the Soviet Armed Services, General M. Moiseyev, reported that the Soviet Union had allocated 6.9 billion
rublesThe Soviet ruble or rouble was the currency of the Soviet Union. One ruble is divided into 100 kopeks, ....
(about US$4 billion) to its space program that year. Other Soviet officials estimated that their total manned space expenses totalled about that amount over the entire duration of the programs, with some lower unofficial estimates of about four and half billion rubles. In addition to ambiguity of the figures, such comparisons must also take into account the likely effect of Soviet propaganda, which pursued the goal of making the Soviet Union look strong and of confusing the Western analysis.
Organizational issues, particularly internal rivalries, also plagued the Soviet effort. The Soviet Union had nothing like NASA (the Russian Aviation and Space Agency originated only in the 1990s). Too many political issues in science and too many personal views handicapped Soviet progress. Every Soviet chief designer had to stand for his own ideas, looking for the patronage of a communist official. In 1964, between the various chief designers, the Soviet Union was developing 30 different programs of launcher and spacecraft design. Following the death of Korolev, the Soviet space program became reactive, attempting to maintain parity with the United States. In 1974 the Soviet Union reorganized its space program, creating the
EnergiaEnergia was a Soviet rocket that was designed by NPO Energia to serve as a heavy-lift expendable launch system as well as a booster for the Buran Space Shuttle. It had the capacity to place about 88 metric tons in Low Earth orbit....
project to duplicate the U.S. Space Shuttle with Shuttle Buran.
The Soviets also operated in the face of an economic disadvantage. Although the Soviet economy was the second largest in the world; the U.S. economy was the largest. Some observers have argued that the high economic cost of the space race, along with the extremely expensive arms race, eventually deepened the economic crisis of the Soviet system during the late 1970s and 1980s and was one of the factors that led to the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Deaths
When the United States' Apollo 15 left the moon, the astronauts left behind a memorial to astronauts from both nations who had perished during the efforts to reach the Moon. In the United States, the first astronauts to die during direct participation in space travel or preparation served in
Apollo 1Apollo 1 is the official name that was retroactively assigned to the never-flown Apollo/Saturn 204 mission. Its command module was destroyed by fire during a test and training exercise on January 27 1967 at Pad 34 atop a Saturn IB rocket...
: Command Pilot
"Gus" GrissomVirgil Ivan Grissom, more widely known as Gus Grissom, was one of the original NASA Project Mercury astronauts and a United States Air Force pilot. He was the second American to fly in space...
, Senior Pilot
Ed WhiteEdward Higgins White, II was an engineer, United States Air Force officer and a NASA astronaut. On June 3 1965, he became the first American to conduct a spacewalk...
, and Pilot Roger Chaffee. These three died in a fire during a ground test on 27 January 1967.
Flights of the Soviet Union's
Soyuz 1Soyuz 1 was a manned spaceflight of the Soviet space program. Launched into orbit on April 23, 1967 carrying cosmonaut Colonel Vladimir Komarov, Soyuz 1 was the first flight of the Soyuz spacecraft. Komarov was killed when the spacecraft crashed during its return to Earth after a mission beset...
and
Soyuz 11Soyuz 11 was the first successful visit to the world's first space station, Salyut 1. However the mission ended in disaster when the crew capsule depressurised during preparations for re-entry, killing the three-man crew. This accident resulted in the only cosmonaut deaths to occur in space...
resulted in cosmonaut deaths.
Soyuz 1, launched into orbit on 23 April 1967, carried a single cosmonaut, Colonel Vladimir Komarov, who died when the spacecraft crashed after return to Earth because of parachute failure. In 1971,
Soyuz 11 cosmonauts Georgi Dobrovolski,
Viktor PatsayevViktor Ivanovich Patsayev was a Soviet cosmonaut who flew on the Soyuz 11 mission and had the unfortunate distinction of being part of the second crew to die during a space flight...
, and
Vladislav VolkovVladislav Nikolayevich Volkov was a Soviet cosmonaut who flew on the Soyuz 7 and Soyuz 11 missions.Graduated from Moscow Air Force Institute, 1959...
asphyxiated during reentry. Since 1971, the Soviet/Russian space program has suffered no further losses.
Other astronauts died in related missions, including four Americans (Ted Freeman, Elliot See, Charlie Bassett, C.C.Williams) who died in crashes of
T-38The Northrop T-38 Talon is an American supersonic jet trainer. It was the world's first supersonic trainer and to date, is also the most produced. It remains in service as of 2009 in air forces throughout the world including the United States Air Force , which remains its largest user.The basic...
aircraft. Soviet Yuri Gagarin, the first man in space, met a similar death when he crashed in a
MiG-15 'Fagot'The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15 was a jet fighter developed for the USSR by Artem Mikoyan and Mikhail Gurevich. The MiG-15 was one of the first successful swept-wing jet fighters, and it achieved fame in the skies over Korea, where early in the war, it outclassed all straight-winged enemy fighters in...
fighter in 1968.
One of the worst disaster in rocketry was the
R-16 failure]The Nedelin catastrophe or Nedelin disaster was a launch pad accident that occurred on 24 October 1960, at Baikonur Cosmodrome during the development of the Soviet R-16 ICBM...
in 1960, when improper shutdown and control procedures during hasty on-pad repairs caused the missile's second stage to fire straight onto the full propellant tanks in the still-attached first stage. The toxic fuel and fire killed around 100 top Soviet military and technical personnel.
Another candidate for the title of worst rocketry disaster was the
N-1N1 or N-1 or 11A52 was a secret Soviet rocket intended to send Soviet cosmonauts to the Moon. It is also known in the West as the G-1e or SL-15. The Soviet classified technical name N1 was an abbreviation from the Russian word носитель...
explosion on July 3 1969. A loose bolt was sucked up by a fuel pump, and after an engine shutdown the rocket hit the launchpad, thus destroying itself and the launch facility. In this disaster no people were killed.
Advances in technology and education
Technology, especially in
aerospace engineeringAerospace engineering is the branch of engineering behind the design, construction and science of aircraft and spacecraft. It is broken into two major and overlapping branches: aeronautical engineering and astronautical engineering...
and
electronicElectronics is a branch of science and technology that deals with the controlled flow of electrons. The ability to control electron flow is usually applied to information handling or device control. Electronics is distinct from electrical science and technology, which deals with the generation,...
communication, advanced greatly during this period. The effects of the Space Race however went far beyond rocketry, physics, and astronomy. "Space age technology" extended to fields as diverse as home economics and forest defoliation studies, and the push to win the race changed the very ways in which students learned science.
American concerns that they had fallen so quickly behind the Soviets in the race to space led quickly to a push by legislators and educators for greater emphasis on mathematics and on the physical sciences in American schools. The United States' National Defense Education Act of 1958 increased funding for these goals from childhood education through the post-graduate level. To this day over 1,200 American high schools retain their own
planetariumA planetarium is a theatre built primarily for presenting educational and entertaining shows about astronomy and the night sky, or for training in celestial navigation...
installations, a situation unparalleled in any other country worldwide and a direct consequence of the Space Race.
The scientists fostered by these efforts helped develop for space exploration technologies which have seen adapted uses ranging from the kitchen to athletic fields. Dried watermelon and ready-to-eat foods, in particular food sterilisation and package sealing techniques, stay-dry clothing, and even no-fog ski goggles have their roots in space science.
Today over a thousand artificial satellites orbit earth, relaying communications data around the planet and facilitating
remote sensingRemote sensing is the small or large-scale acquisition of information of an object or phenomenon, by the use of either recording or real-time sensing device that are wireless, or not in physical or intimate contact with the object...
of data on weather, vegetation, and human movements to nations who employ them. In addition, much of the micro-technology which fuels everyday activities from time-keeping to enjoying music derives from research initially driven by the Space Race.
And with all these advances since the first Sputnik was launched, the former Soviet Union's R-7 (missile) rocket, that marked the beginning the space race, is still in use today, notably servicing the
ISSISS generally refers to the International Space Station, but may also refer to:* Injury Severity Score, an established medical score used to asses the severity of trauma* ISS A/S, a Danish service company...
.
Recent events
Although its pace has slowed, space exploration continues to advance long after the demise of the initial space race. The United States launched the first reusable spacecraft (
Space shuttleThe Space Shuttle, part of the Space Transportation System , is a spacecraft operated by NASA for orbital human spaceflight missions. It began operations in the 1980s and is scheduled to be retired from service in 2010 after 134 launches...
) on the 20th anniversary of Gagarin's flight, 12 April 1981. On 15 November 1988, the Soviet Union launched
BuranBuran may refer to:* Buran , a Soviet space shuttle**Buran program, which developed the spacecraft* Buran , a wind which blows across eastern Asia* Buran cruise missile, a Soviet cruise missile...
, their first and only reusable spacecraft. It has never been used again after the first flight. Instead the Soviet Union pursued a program of
space stationA space station is an artificial structure designed for humans to live in outer space. To date, only low earth orbital stations have been implemented, otherwise known as orbital stations...
s.
These and other nations continue to launch probes, satellites of many types, and space telescopes. In contrast to the years of the initial space race, recent space exploration has proceeded, to some extent, in worldwide cooperation, the high point of which is the construction and operation of the
International space stationThe International Space Station is an internationally developed research facility currently being assembled in Low Earth Orbit. On-orbit construction of the station began in 1998 and is scheduled to be completed by 2011, with operations continuing until at least 2015...
. At the same time, the international space race between smaller space powers since the end of the 20th century can be considered the foundation and expansion of markets of commercial rocket launches and
space tourismSpace tourism is the recent phenomenon of tourists paying for flights into space.As of 2009, orbital space tourism opportunities are limited and expensive, with only the Russian Space Agency providing transport...
.
The
European Space Agency|owner = |headquarters = Paris|spaceport = Guiana Space Centre|image = ESA LOGO.svg|size = 240px|acronym = ESA|established = 1975|administrator = Jean-Jacques Dordain...
has taken the lead in commercial launches since the introduction of the
Ariane 4Ariane 4 was an expendable launch system, designed by the Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales and manufactured and marketed by its subsidiary Arianespace. Ariane 4 was justly known as the ‘workhorse’ of the Ariane family. Since its first flight on 15 June 1988 until the last, on 15 February 2003, it...
, but is in competition with NASA, Russia,
Sea LaunchSea Launch is a spacecraft launch service that uses a mobile sea platform for equatorial launches of commercial payloads on specialized Zenit 3SL rockets. As of April 2009 it had assembled and launched thirty rockets, with two failures and one partial failure. In June 2009 the provider of the Sea...
(private), China, India and others. Europe's own ESA-designed manned shuttle
HermesHermes was a proposed spaceplane designed by the French Centre national d'études spatiales in 1975, and later by the European Space Agency, which was superficially similar to the US X-20. France proposed in January 1985 to go through with Hermes development under the auspices of ESA. Hermes was to...
and space station Columbus, and other countries' manned shuttle and capsule programs were under development early on in Europe, but these projects were aborted, and Europe did not become the third major
space power. Europe has various-aimed satellites, used Spacelab and the manned module aboard US Shuttles, has sent probes to comets and Mars, participates in ISS with its own module and the unmanned cargo spacecraft
ATVThe Automated Transfer Vehicle or ATV is an expendable, unmanned resupply spacecraft developed by the European Space Agency . ATVs are designed to supply the International Space Station with propellant, water, air, payload and experiments...
. Now ESA has a program for development of an independent multi-function manned spacecraft
CSTSCSTS or ACTS is a human spaceflight system proposal which was jointly studied by the European Space Agency and the Russian Space Agency , with the objective to design a spacecraft for LEO operations such...
from 2018, and ESA's further wishes have culminated in an ambitious plan called the
Aurora ProgrammeThe Aurora programme is a human spaceflight programme of the European Space Agency established in 2001 with the primary objectives of creating, and then implementing, a European long-term plan for exploration of the Solar System using robotic spacecraft and human spaceflight...
, which intends to send a human mission to Mars sometime after 2030 (a set of various landmark missions to reach this goal are currently under consideration). ESA has a multi-lateral partnership, and it has plans for spacecraft and further missions with foreign participation and co-funding.
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
exploites for ISS and other goals the high-cost Shuttle system (that will be finished at 2011) and fulfils other space exploration, including wide participation in ISS with few own modules and Shuttle support missions, set of unmanned Mars probes, military satellites, etc. Started by President
George W. BushGeorge Walker Bush was the 43rd President of the United States from 2001 to 2009 and the 46th Governor of Texas from 1995 to 2000....
's in 2004, US is now under the real Constellation space program with scheduled to launch since 2018 multi-function
OrionOrion is a spacecraft design currently under development by the United States space agency NASA. Each Orion spacecraft will carry a crew of four to six astronauts. The spacecraft is designed to be launched by the Ares I, a launch vehicle, also currently under development...
spacecraft and subsequent return to the Moon by 2020 and manned flights to Mars later.
Successor of Soviet Union, having former high potential but smaller funding,
RussiaRussia , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia . It is a semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
has some own space programs (including military), offers the wide commercial launch service, continues to support of ISS with few own modules and manned and cargo spacecrafts (and will make this after US Shuttle program will be closed), develops the new multi-function
PPTSPPTS , unofficially called Rus, is a project being undertaken by the Russian Federal Space Agency to develop a new-generation manned spacecraft. It's official name is Pilotiruemyi Transportny Korabl Novogo Pokoleniya or PTK NP meaning New Generation Piloted Transport Ship...
manned spacecraft for 2018 and has plans to manned moon missions also.
That is to say that three old space players have similar programs of new manned spacecrafts, all for 2018 and with no shuttle systems foreseen.
Other nations most notably capable of increasing competition in space exploration are Japan, China, India, main players in
Asian space raceThe Asian space race is a purported race among several Asian countries to achieve scientific and technological advancements in space.Outer space is also of strategic concern to a growing number of countries worldwide...
.
Although
ChinaChina is a cultural region, an ancient civilization, and, depending on perspective, a national or multinational entity extending over a large area in East Asia....
's funding is not in the same league with ESA or NASA, the successful manned space flights (since 2003), the possessing of various-aimed satellites, the wide commercial launch service, and the real plans in the
Chinese space programThe space program of the People's Republic of China was initiated soon after the country's founding in 1949. Eventually, this space program covers anti-ballistic missile system, anti-satellite weaponries, reconnaissance satellites, manned spaceflights, "space laboratories", space stations and...
for an own
space stationA space station is an artificial structure designed for humans to live in outer space. To date, only low earth orbital stations have been implemented, otherwise known as orbital stations...
and unmanned probes to Mars in near future and shuttle, manned missions to Moon and lunar base in perspective makes the
People's Republic of ChinaThe People's Republic of China , commonly known as China, is the largest country in East Asia and the most populous in the world with over 1.3 billion people, approximately one-fifth of the world's population...
as the third
space power. The United States military is evidently keeping a close watch on China's space aspirations, with
the PentagonThe Pentagon is the headquarters of the United States Department of Defense, located in Arlington, Virginia. As a symbol of the U.S. military, "the Pentagon" is often used metonymically to refer to the Department of Defense rather than the building itself....
releasing a report in 2006 detailing concerns about China's growing space power, including military goals. In early 2007 China launched a ballistic missile to destroy a satellite, frustrating international observers as this had violated a consensus not to attempt such maneuvers in space that have military undertones. This was some token that the space race had not really ever ended and actually had only expanded.
In a counterpart to China,
IndiaIndia, officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the west, and the Bay of Bengal...
also has active own space programs and a some commercial launch service. India's national space agency, ISRO, successfully launched first unmanned lunar mission (Chandrayaan-1, on October 22, 2008). India also has plans for an unmanned mission to the Moon, Mars in 2012, for small shuttle systems and intends to be the fourth
space power with the independent manned space flights since 2015 and the manned moon missions after 2025-2030..
Japanis an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, People's Republic of China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
is the third main Asian space player, but does not have a commercial launch service. The Japanese Space Agency, JAXA, participates in ISS (having own module and unmanned cargo spacecraft
HTVThe H-II Transfer Vehicle is an unmanned resupply spacecraft used to resupply the Kibō Japanese Experiment Module and the rest of the International Space Station . The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency has been working on the design since the early 1990s. The first mission, HTV-1, was...
), has launched Mars fly-by probe (firstly after USSR and USA) and Moon probe (
SELENESELENE , better known in Japan by its nickname , was the second Japanese lunar orbiter spacecraft. Produced by the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science and NASDA , the spacecraft was launched September 14, 2007...
is touted as the most sophisticated lunar exploration mission in the post-Apollo Era). Japan has developed during several years its own manned shuttles
HOPE-XHOPE was a Japanese experimental spaceplane project designed by a partnership between NASDA and NAL , started in the 1980s. It was positioned for most of its lifetime as one of the main Japanese contributions to the International Space Station, the other being the Japanese Experiment Module...
,
Kankoh-maruThe is the name of a vertical takeoff and landing, single-stage to orbit, reusable launch vehicle family of rockets, and the spacecraft tour vehicle designed to be boosted by said rocket...
and
FujiFuji is capsule type manned spacecraft concept,proposed by Japan's National Space Development Agency Advanced mission Research center when December 2001. But, the Fuji concept was not adopted.-Background:...
manned capsule spacecraft but they were not released. Now Japan intends to have new manned spacecraft to 2025 as well as manned moon missions and moon base after 2030.
Thus, in new Moon race one nation, United States now is leading again, but many space players are participating for
second prize - Russia, China, Japan, India. Mars is considered the next goal by USA and Europe.
If European and Japanese manned programs are delayed on research stage, the next (after India)
country capable for independent manned spaceflightHuman spaceflight is spaceflight with a human crew and possibly passengers. This makes it unlike robotic space probes or remotely-controlled satellites...
possible space power would be
IranIran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran is a country in Western Asia. The name Iran has been in use natively since the Sassanid period and came into international use from 1935, before which the country was known internationally as Persia...
, which starts own manned program aiming by 2021.
Some other nations are small space players already or intends to join the
space club (able to launch satellites independently) in near or far future.
Commercial space race
Another kind of
space race may differ in nature from the original Soviet-American competition, as it could occur between commercial space enterprises. Early efforts in what is commonly referred to as
space tourismSpace tourism is the recent phenomenon of tourists paying for flights into space.As of 2009, orbital space tourism opportunities are limited and expensive, with only the Russian Space Agency providing transport...
, to run the first commercial trips into orbit, culminated on April 28, 2001 when American
Dennis TitoDennis Anthony Tito is a United States engineer, multimillionaire, and most widely known as the first space tourist to pay for his own ticket...
became the first fee-paying space tourist when he visited the
International Space StationThe International Space Station is an internationally developed research facility currently being assembled in Low Earth Orbit. On-orbit construction of the station began in 1998 and is scheduled to be completed by 2011, with operations continuing until at least 2015...
on board Russia's
Soyuz TM-32Soyuz TM-32 was a manned Russian space launch on April 28, 2001. Its mission was to carry a new crew and supplies to the International Space Station...
. The
Ansari X PrizeThe Ansari X PRIZE was a space competition in which the X PRIZE Foundation offered a US$10,000,000 prize for the first non-government organization to launch a reusable manned spacecraft into space twice within two weeks. It was modeled after early 20th-century aviation prizes, and aimed to spur...
, a competition for
private suborbital spaceshipsPrivate spaceflight is flight above Earth altitude conducted by and paid for by an entity other than a government. In the early decades of the Space Age, the government space agencies of the Soviet Union and United States pioneered space technology augmented by collaboration with affiliated design...
, has also evoked the prospect of a new
space race by private companies. In late 2004, British aviator-financier
Richard BransonSir Richard Charles Nicholas Branson is an English industrialist, best known for his Virgin brand of over 360 companies. Branson's first successful business venture was at age 16, when he published a magazine called Student. He then set up an audio record mail-order business in 1970...
announced the launch of
Virgin GalacticVirgin Galactic is a company within Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Group which plans to provide sub-orbital spaceflights to the paying public. Further in the future Virgin Galactic plans to offer orbital spaceflights as well...
, a company which will use
SpaceShipOneSpaceShipOne is a rocket-powered aircraft that completed the first privately funded human spaceflight on June 21, 2004. It was developed by Scaled Composites....
technology, with hopes of launching sub-orbital flights by 2008.
See also
- Asia's Space Race
- Atmospheric reentry
Atmospheric reentry refers to the movement of human-made or natural objects as they enter the atmosphere of a planet from outer space, in the case of Earth from an altitude above the "edge of space." This article primarily addresses the process of controlled reentry of vehicles which are intended...
- Celestial mechanics
Celestial mechanics is the branch of astronomy that deals with the motions of celestial objects. The field applies principles of physics, historically classical mechanics, to astronomical objects such as stars and planets to produce ephemeris data. Orbital mechanics is a subfield which focuses on...
, calculating the trajectoriesA trajectory is the path a moving object follows through space. The object might be a projectile or a satellite, for example. It thus includes the meaning of orbit - the path of a planet, an asteroid or a comet as it travels around a central mass...
for space travel
- Crew Exploration Vehicle
The Crew Exploration Vehicle was the conceptual component of the Vision for Space Exploration that later became known as the Orion spacecraft. The concept for the vehicle was officially announced in a speech given by George W...
American counterpart to Kliper
- Space vehicle guidance using the gyroscopic
A gyroscope is a device for measuring or maintaining orientation, based on the principles of angular momentum. A mechanical gyroscope is essentially a spinning wheel or disk whose axle is free to take any orientation...
compassA compass is a navigational instrument for determining direction relative to the Earth's magnetic poles. It consists of a magnetized pointer free to align itself with Earth's magnetic field. The compass greatly improved the safety and efficiency of travel, especially ocean travel...
- List of spacecraft manufacturers
- Kliper
Kliper is a partly reusable manned spacecraft, proposed by RSC Energia.Designed primarily to replace the Soyuz spacecraft, Kliper has been proposed in two versions: as a pure lifting body design and as spaceplane with small wings...
Russian-European cooperation for a new 'space shuttle' type launch craft
- Moon Shot
For the Buffy Sainte-Marie album, see Moonshot .Moon Shot: The Inside Story of America's Race to the Moon is a book written by Mercury Seven astronaut Alan Shepard, with NBC News correspondent Jay Barbree and Associated Press aviation writer Howard Benedict. Astronaut Donald K...
- List of Space Exploration Milestones, 1957-1969
- Spaceflight records
This is a list of spaceflight records. Most of these records relate to human spaceflights, but some unmanned and canine records are included.-Longest human single flight:...
- US space surveillance network tracks objects in space
- Timeline of space exploration
This is a Space Exploration Timeline including notable achievements and first accomplishments in humanity's physical exploration of space.-Prior to 1942:-1942-1957:-1957-1961:-1961-1969:-1970-1980:-1981-present:...
- Woods Hole Conference
The Woods Hole Conference was held at Woods Hole, Massachusetts as a response to the Soviet Union's launch of the Sputnikseries of satellites, in 1959 to identify the problems of science education and to recommend solutions...
External links
NASA:
Other websites: