8G History Lesson 145 Assignment

In this assignment, I will be summarizing the history of Space Exploration, specifically focusing on the Space Race between the U.S. and U.S.S.R.

Early Milestones

Humans have always been looking up into space, wondering what things are like up there. Early literature has many mentions of space, even before people started to explore it.

It is hard to decide the first major milestone in space exploration, as there have been so many developments. The first airplane flight was a very important milestone, as was the first rocket flight. The Germans built many rockets during WWII, as did the Russians and the Americans later on. The U.S. launched many rockets to gather information about the atmosphere.

The Space Race

The first satellite (called Sputnik 1) was launched in 1957 by the Soviet Union. It came as a surprise to many people, as they didn’t think the Soviets were capable of such advanced technology. In the same year, the Soviets launched the Sputnik 2, which had a dog inside of it! It was the first living being in space. The U.S. scrambled to develop a satellite of their own, and in 1958 they launched the Explorer 1.

Keep in mind that the tensions were high between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. during this time, as both were developing more and more powerful nuclear weapons. This was a major factor as to why the Space Race happened.

After the Sputnik’s success, the Soviets started working on developing a spacecraft that could carry a human in it, and in 1961 Yuri Gagarin was launched into space inside the Vostok 1. The U.S. later launched a spacecraft that carried Alan Shepard into space.

On May 25, 1961 JFK promised America that man would land on the moon by the end of the decade. This sparked a race to the moon that would last the whole decade, with both sides making major developments and enhancements to their spacecraft. On July 16, 1969 the Apollo 10 was launched into space towards the moon with 3 humans on board, and 4 days later they successfully landed on the moon! The U.S. had achieved their goal.

Space exploration still continues today, with many important developments like the James Webb Space telescope. NASA is planning to land a man on Mars by 2040, so it will be exciting to see if that happens!