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Cold War on a Global Scale/Space Race

< Cold War on a Global Scale

The space race was the competition between the USSR and the United States. It took place during the time of the cold war. It lasted effectively from around 1957 all the way to 1969. President John F. Kennedy led the United States in this race and pushed funding for it very heavily. Progress was constantly being made and the boundaries of possibilities were being increased.

Timeline

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  • Space exploration was a battle arena in the cold war and the USSR was in the lead for the majority of it.
  • The Space Race between the United States and the Soviet Union began on Oct. 4th, 1957 when the Soviet Union launched Sputnik 1 into space.
  • The United States soon followed in Jan. 31, 1958 when they successfully put a satellite into orbit.
  • Things started heating up when in 1959 the USSR launched a probe named Luna 2 onto the moon.
  • The next step was to send a person into space and on April 12, 1961 Yuri Gagarin of the Soviet Union orbited the Moon.
  • That same year in April the U.S. launched a man named Alan B. Shepard into space.
  • They took small steps at a time, and in 1961 the USSR launched the first woman into space.
  • The competition was aimed at becoming the first country to have a man land on the moon.<
  • For around 8 years the progress in feats became stagnant until on July 16, 1969 the United States successfully accomplished a lunar landing which basically won the United States the victory in the Space Race.

Sources

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  • Staff, History.com. "The Space Race." History.com. A&E Television Networks, 2010. Web. 23 Mar. 2016.
  • "TheSpaceRace.com - Timeline of Space Exploration." TheSpaceRace.com - Timeline of Space Exploration. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Mar. 2016
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