President Kennedy's Space Race

After World War II was over, the United States and the Soviet Union were at War. This is commonly referred to as the “Cold” War, there was no fighting involved, but it was the idea of the United States to stop communism to spread any more. To solve one of these problems, there was a Space Race going to happen, which later turned out to be a race to land a man on the Moon. Furthermore, I would like to discuss the competition between the Soviet’s and Americans, the basic facts of the mission, and lastly President Kennedy’s view on this mission that he had set out. In the 1950’s and the 1960’s, there was a competition between the United States and the Soviet Union. In the late 1950s, the Soviet Union had surpassed the United States for the first time during the 1950’s and 1960’s. The Soviet Union had launched Sputnik I, their artificially satellite to launch into space in the year 1957, which was the first to ever do so. As the Soviet’s continued to dominate the race, the United States was not giving up. The Soviet’s had many firsts, which include first woman in …show more content…
He basically said that we are in a race with the Soviet Union to get a man on the Moon. Also, he stated that we have all the technology necessary to accomplish this mission. President Kennedy said “First, I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth.” He said no single project in this time period will be more impressive to mankind, or more important for the long-range exploration of space; and none will be so difficult or expensive to accomplish. At the speech he was announcing at Congress, he was feeling all the pressure because we were trailing this “Space Race” for most of the time. By the time we sent the Explorer I up into space, the Soviet Union had already launched their Sputnik I and II up into