Space Race facts for kids
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.
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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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Wernher von Braun became the United States' lead rocket engineer during the 1950s and 1960s.
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The US stable of Explorer 1, Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo launch vehicles were a varied group of ICBMs and the NASA-developed Saturn IB rocket.
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Replica of the first artificial satellite Sputnik 1, 1957
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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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Laika on a Romanian post stamp
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Replica of the Zenit and Vostok spacecraft bus
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Yuri Gagarin, the first person in space, 1961
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Cutaway of the Mercury capsule
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Alan Shepard, the first American in space, 1961
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John Glenn, the first American in orbit, 1962
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Korolev modified the one-person Vostok capsule into carrying three people, or two plus an airlock for spacewalk capability.
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Rendezvous of Gemini 6 and 7, December 1965
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Progress in the Space Race, showing the US passing the Soviets in 1965
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Soviet LK (Lunniy Korabl) and American Apollo Lunar Module lunar landers
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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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Soyuz 7K-L1 Zond spacecraft, artist view
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Earthrise, as seen from Apollo 8, December 24, 1968 (photograph by astronaut William Anders)
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Neil Armstrong, first person to walk on the Moon, 1969
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Eugene Cernan rides the Lunar Roving Vehicle during Apollo 17, December 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, Alexei Leonov, and Valeri Kubasov
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American Stafford and Russian Leonov shake hands in space aboard the Apollo–Soyuz docking adapter.
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Space Shuttle (US) docked to Mir (USSR/Russia) (1995), both products of the ending competition, joined in the Shuttle-Mir program (1993–1998) which facilitated the ongoing International Space Station programme.
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International Space Station in 2010
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See also
In Spanish: Carrera espacial para niños
