The Origins Of The Space Race

After World War II, Many powerful nations started to decline. Germany was defeated, France and Britain were in an economic decline and needed to start rebuilding. The United States and the Soviet Union both emerged as the world 's superpowers after World War II. Due to the fact that these nations dominated world politics at this time, they began to have conflicting ideas. After World War II both Soviet Union and the United States had mutual distrust leading to the cold war, which was a state of tension and hostility between the superpowers. This tension was a result of differences in political and economic ideas between the democratic, capitalism United States and the communist Soviet Union. It was called the “cold” war because there was no actual armed battle that occurred. Both superpowers competed to the journey to space, This is called the space race. Although the space race began in the late 1940’s during the cold war period between the United States and the Soviet Union, it continues to have a large …show more content…
On October 4, 1957 the Soviet Union launched the first ever satellite into space called Sputnik 1. One month later on November 3, 1957 the Soviet Union launched Sputnik II while also carrying a dog named Laika which was also the first animal to go up in space. At this point into the space race the Soviet Union were way ahead of the United States. Which also brought more competition and tension into the space race. The first man to travel to space was Yuri Gagarin. History was made on April 12, 1961, when he successfully orbited the earth in the Vostok 1. His flight lasted one hour and 48 minutes and as he circled the earth, his speed was about 17,000 mph on the Vostok 1. Following this mission, Gagarin was killed in a test airplane crash. The USSR also brought the first woman into space her name is Valentina Tereshkova on june 16 1963 which also brought more tensions through the space