The Cold War was a 40 year long war between the USA and the USSR. The US and the
USSR never had any direct contact, but what they did do, was have "races". One of the the
“races” was called the Space Race. The Space Race was, as the name says, was a race to see who could get up in space first. The Space Race even benefitted from the other “race” the Nuclear
Arms Race.
The Space Race was a “race” between the USSR and US to reach the final frontier first, which shows how far the Cold War had stretched, it was as if the world couldn’t contain the
Cold War and it just spilled into space and even reached moon. During the Space Race other than showing scientifical superiority, the US and USSR could show how much their military had grown since World War Two. The Space Race would show military advancements since World
War Two, because the same rocket boosters which were used to launch rockets could be used to power missiles. This was threatening to both countries, because this meant that bombs or more specifically nuclear bombs wouldn’t have to be dropped by an airplane, but could be fired at a either country by the use of long range missiles and would mean that the country been bombed would have short notice unlike airplanes which could be detected earlier through radar . With the
Soviets already ahead in the Space Race in 1957, the Americans were quick to start on Project
Mercury, which was a project to get a man into space. Project Mercury was the first chance for
American victory in the space race, especially since the Soviet Satellite Sputnik 1 had already been launched and was in orbit. The goal of Project Mercury was to get a man into space and orbit him around the earth before the Soviets did. But, when the Soviet Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first man to orbit the Earth in 1961, Project Mercury was seen as a failure.
After Project Mercury failed, America had to beat the Soviets to the next step in the
Space Race, which was to put a man on the moon. So in 1961, JFK delivered a speech to
Congress saying that it should be a goal for the US to put a man on the moon by the end of the decade and bringing him safely back. As JFK had wanted the goal of putting a man on the
