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| The Soviets beat the Americans in most firsts, but did not manage to beat them to the moon. ] and especially ] technology advanced greatly during this period. In the sense that it was contested during the ], the space race is usually considered to have been ended by the joint ] in ]. | The Soviets beat the Americans in most firsts, but did not manage to beat them to the moon. ] and especially ] technology advanced greatly during this period. In the sense that it was contested during the ], the space race is usually considered to have been ended by the joint ] in ]. | ||
| In ], with the successful |
In ], with the successful manned space flight by ], there has been speculation of a new space race with the ] considering creating a permanent base on the Moon and/or a crewed mission to ] | ||
Revision as of 16:24, 14 May 2004
The Space Race was an unofficial competition between the United States and the USSR in space exploration and technology, and especially to the race between the two nations to land a human being on the moon in the second half of the 1960s. Many also consider this a race to develop military technology to win the nuclear weapons arms race during the Cold War. Significant events in the Space Race include:
- first artificial satellite - Sputnik 1 (1957, USSR)
- first animal in orbit - Laika - Sputnik 2 (1957, USSR)
- first spacecraft on moon - Luna 2 (1959, USSR)
- first human in space - Yuri Gagarin, Vostok 1 (1961, USSR)
- first human in orbit - Vostok 1 (as above)
- first spacecraft to successfully fly by Venus - Mariner 2 (1962, USA)
- first dual manned flight (1962, USSR)
- first woman in space - Valentina Tereshkova (1963, USSR)
- first flight with more than one crew member - Voskhod 1 (1964, USSR)
- first spacecraft to successfully fly by Mars - Mariner 4 (1965, USA)
- first spacewalk - Aleksei Leonov on Voskhod 2 (1965, USSR)
- first space rendezvous - Gemini 6/Gemini 7 (1965, USA)
- first space docking - Gemini 8 (1966, USA)
- first human orbital flight of moon - Apollo 8 (1968, USA)
- first human landing on moon - Apollo 11 (1969, USA)
- first spacecraft on Venus - Venera 7 (1971, USSR)
- first space station - Salyut 1 (1971, USSR)
- first spacecraft on Mars - Mars 3 (1971, USSR)
- first spacecraft to fly by Jupiter - Pioneer 10 (1973, USA)
- first (and as of 2004 the only) spacecraft to fly by Mercury - Mariner 10 (1974, USA)
- first spacecraft to fly by Saturn - Pioneer 11 (1979, USA)
- first (and as of 2004 the only) spacecraft to fly by Uranus - Voyager 2 (1986, USA)
- first (and as of 2004 the only) spacecraft to fly by Neptune - Voyager 2 (1989, USA)
The Soviets beat the Americans in most firsts, but did not manage to beat them to the moon. Technology and especially aerospace technology advanced greatly during this period. In the sense that it was contested during the 1960s, the space race is usually considered to have been ended by the joint Apollo-Soyuz mission in 1975.
In 2003, with the successful manned space flight by China, there has been speculation of a new space race with the United States considering creating a permanent base on the Moon and/or a crewed mission to Mars