Space Race
The space race was born in 1957 when the Soviet Union launched the first ever space program, Sputnik Sputnik was only 22.8 inches in diameter and weighed just 183.9 pounds. It was simply an orb with four antenna, two in each hemisphere. This orb was essentially a sphere shell,a battery back, and a walkie-talkie. It was designed to send a beeping tone that amateur radio stations could hear. It orbited earth as the first man-made satellite for about three weeks before its battery died. It took about another week before it disintegrated in Earth’s atmosphere. This small orb made the United States jealous.
The United States was envious because they had been leading the world in technology until now. In order to regain their position as leader, the U.S. joined the space race. The Apollo program was launched; their mission was to safely land a man on the moon and get them back.
The first attempt at Apollo was not the best of its series. In a training mission faulty wiring caused a flash fire to occur in the oxygen rich environment, everything was destroyed. All three of the training astronauts were killed in 13 seconds. The fire was so big that people could not distinguish human parts from technological parts.
As a result, the U.S. completely remodeled the space craft but called it Apollo One even though there had been a previous attempt. This time it was a half success; the engineers of the Apollo missions were not finished with the Lunar lander by the deadline, so the astronauts had to orbit the moon instead of land on it.
Apollo Two perfectly accomplished the goal of the mission. The United States had successfully put a man on the moon and safely landed him on Earth. The launch of Sputnik launched more than a tiny orb into space—it launched a fierce competition between the United States and the USSR to out do each other. It would take decades before the two countries would work together on the first International Space station, a project that would require the help of 13 other countries.
Today, the United States is working to go back to the Moon, only this time they want to stay. In the next millennia we could find ourselves in another solar system, all because of a tiny orb named Sputnik.
I love it! Thanks for sharing. You may be witness to a new space race. There are many private companies that are working on going into space funded by Billionaires that believe governments have failed in pursuing a space effort. Meanwhile China is working on their own moon mission and the Russians just announced they are also re-building their own space program. In a way it makes me sad that we are all pursuing individual efforts into space instead of working together. The International Space Station was all about cooperation – and has worked well. If governments could agree to work together on going to the moon – it would be a world-wide unifying event…
After we go to the moon, where should the space program direct their energies? Why?
Georges,
Sputnik and 1957 really takes me back. I had just started my engineering career and was working for Raytheon Company in Goleta. When Sputnik was launched and we were listening to the ‘beep,’ ‘beep.’ We were in shock. How did this happen? How could it be? Maybe we were jealous, but maybe, just maybe a lot of the American people knew that we should and could be doing better. Another factor could be fear that we were losing in space and could become vulnerable as a nation and as a people.
It is much better that now a space station is a bonifide cooperative effort. There is still a world of wonders out there. Do me a favor and think of your gpr while you are working with them.
Wow! That’s amazing to think about…….maybe you should become a public speaker…..