Battle for the space

Illustration: Dave Simonds

The space race started during Cold War, At that time nukes were not strong and fast enough, so it was difficult to bomb USSR and USA each other, so they got a new idea, launching nukes through space. Russia started the game and send the first satellite into orbit. It travelled a distance equal to the distance between The Sun and the Earth. Americans are terrified. USA 0:1 USSR

President Eisenhower responded by establishing the National Aeronautics and Space(NASA). At first, both superpowers send animals into orbit. In 1959, NASA finds seven military pilots in, Mercury 7 team. Before NASA, on April 12, 1961, USSR sends Gagarin the space, the first man who orbited the Earth. USA 0:2 USSR

3 weeks later NASA sends Alan Shepard into the atmosphere. John F. Kennedy doubles the budget of NASA. The US designs Project Apollo, the goal was to go to the Moon. Unfortunately after 6 days, Kennedy is assassinated, NASA loses its strongest ally, and the public loses interest in the space race. In 1964 US sends 184,000 men to Vietnam. Meanwhile, the Soviets launches the first object to reach the moon(LUNA 2) in 1959, the first woman in space(Valentina Tereshkova) in 1963, first spacewalk in 1965. USA 0:5 USSR

The USA fails its first test launch in January 1967, Apollo astronauts were victims of the swift inferno. Now they hire former Nazi, Hitler’s favourite rocket engineer Wernher von Braun. He comes up with a much bigger rocket, Saturn 5. But in 1968 both superpowers face huge problems. American soldiers are returning from Vietnam in body bags, Gagarin is killed in a plane crash, and Czechoslavakia revolts against the Soviets. Both sides need a victory in space to boost morale at home and distract from more earthly problems.

Saturn V enter lunar orbit on December 21st, 1968. The US takes over: the first man to orbit the moon, the first photo of Earth from the moon. 7 months later Neil Armstrong lands on the Moon. In the race for the moon, America has finally come in first. USA 1:0 USSR

In the three years that follow, ten more Americans land on the moon. In 1986 focuses on an orbital space station, MIR. But in 1991, with the Soviet Union’s fall, the Cold War is over. Competitions turn into cooperation between the US and a new friendlier Russia. In 1998 construction starts on the first ISS( International Space Station). 5 space agencies worked on it.

The space race is over. It began through fear as a reaction to the threat of an enemy. But the perspective changed after several flights. Today new threats are re-focusing our gaze back on our little blue marble. In order to preserve it the nations of the world will need to work together. The next space race may not be nation against nation, but humanity against the CLOCK⏳