Space Race facts for kids

The Soviet Union achieved an early lead in the Space Race by launching the first artificial satellite Sputnik 1 (replica shown) in 1957.

The United States led during the "Moon race" by landing Neil Armstrong (pictured) and Buzz Aldrin on the Moon, July 20, 1969.

Astronaut Thomas P. Stafford and cosmonaut Alexei Leonov shake hands in space during the Apollo–Soyuz Test Project.

The Space Race was a competition of space exploration between the Soviet Union and the United States, which lasted from 1957 to 1969. It had to do with the efforts to explore outer space with artificial satellites, to send humans into space, and to land them on the Moon.

The Space Race began after the Soviet launch of Sputnik 1 on 4 October 1957. The term "Space Race" started as a comparison to the arms race. The Space Race became an important part of the rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War. Space technology became an extra important area in this rivalry, because of possible military uses.

First artificial Satellite in Orbit

On 4 October 1957, the Soviet Union launched Sputnik 1, the first artificial satellite to enter the Earth's orbit. This started the Space Race.

First Man in Orbit

One part of the space race was the race to put a man into space. This first was won by the Soviet Union when Major Yuri Gagarin orbited the earth on 12 April 1961.

First Men on the Moon

On May 25 1961, in a speech to a joint sitting of congress, President John F Kennedy of the United States of America set the impossible goal of landing a man on the Moon by the end of the decade. This also implied a challenge to the Russians to try to do it first. The Americans won this part of the race in 1969 when Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed on the Moon and returned safely to the Earth.

Images for kids

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  "Chief Designer" Sergei Korolev (left), with the "father of the Soviet atomic bomb" Igor Kurchatov, and "Chief Theoretician" Mstislav Keldysh in 1956

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  Soviet R-7 ICBM, and its derivative launch vehicles for Sputnik, Vostok, Voskhod, and Soyuz

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  William Hayward Pickering, James Van Allen, and Wernher von Braun display a full-scale model of Explorer 1 at a Washington, DC news conference after confirmation the satellite was in orbit

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  Yuri Gagarin, the first person in space, 1961

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  Alan Shepard, the first American in space, 1961

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  Computer-generated image of the Friendship 7 capsule in orbit

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  John Glenn, the first American in orbit, 1962

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  Replica of the Vostok capsule

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  Valentina Tereshkova

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  The Voskhod 1 and 2 space capsules

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  Progress in the Space Race, showing the US passing the Soviets in 1965

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  Rendezvous of Gemini 6 and 7, December 1965

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  Commemorative plaque and the "Fallen Astronaut" sculpture left on the Moon in 1971 by the crew of Apollo 15 in memory of 14 deceased NASA astronauts and USSR cosmonauts

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  Artist view of Soyuz 4 and Soyuz 5 after docking

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  Soyuz 7K-L1 Zond spacecraft. Artist view

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  Earthrise as seen from Apollo 8, December 24, 1968 (NASA)

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  The Lunar Module flew in lunar orbit on Apollo 10, May 22–23, 1969

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  American Buzz Aldrin during the first Moon walk in 1969

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  Apollo 17's Saturn V in 1972

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  Moonwalk, December 13, 1972

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  The Soyuz 11 crew with the Salyut station in the background, in a Soviet commemorative stamp

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  Apollo-Soyuz crew: From left to right: Donald "Deke" Slayton, Thomas Patten Stafford, Vance Brand, Alexey Leonov, and Valeri Kubasov

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  International Space Station in 2010