Space Race Research Paper

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The International Space Station has been in orbit for over 25 years, but neither that nor the countless discoveries in space exploration made over the last 68 years would have been possible without the advancements made during and since the Cold War’s Space Race. During the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union, which lasted from 1947-1991, there was a competition to prove technological and intellectual superiority by putting the first man on the moon. It began in 1955 and ended in 1975 with the last Apollo mission, where the two nations linked spacecraft in orbit. Many innovations and advancements have been made to further improve the study of space ever since the space race began in 1955, like the advancements in spacecraft, suits …show more content…
Two years after the defeat of the Axis powers in World War II, the world superpowers of the United States, and the USSR began an almost 50-year political and military standoff. In a competition to prove both technological and intellectual superiority, the space race was born in 1955. With this, the two countries began a race to put the first man on the moon, which led to many technological breakthroughs in space exploration in its 20-year span. On October 4, 1957, Sputnik 1 became the first-ever artificial object to be launched into space. The satellite was a small aluminum sphere that was about 22 inches in diameter. Although it was only functional for three weeks in the Earth's orbit, it marked the first action in the space race. Less than a month after the success of Sputnik 1, the Soviet Union sent Sputnik 2 into space carrying Lakia, a dog. In 1958, the U.S. joined the space race by sending up the satellite Explorer 1. It wasn’t until 1960 that the first animals, two dogs named Belka and Strelka, safely landed back on Earth aboard Sputnik
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