Lesson 23 — Activity 1:

The Space Race



Explore

   
 

@creativecommons
Sputnik 1 Satellite
 







History changed on October 4th, 1957, when the Soviet Union successfully launched Sputnik I. The world's first artificial satellite was about the size of a beach ball (58 cm or 22.8 inches in diameter), weighed only 83.6 kg or 183.9 pounds, and took about 98 minutes to orbit the Earth on its elliptical path. That launch ushered in new political, military, technological, and scientific developments. While the Sputnik launch was a single event, it marked the start of the space age and the U.S.-U.S.S.R space race. In this activity, you will learn about what it takes to get into space.



Both the United States and the Soviet Union wanted to gain supremacy over the other in space. This had been going on since before Sputnik had been successfully launched. It would be both a technological and a propaganda victory for the winner. Billions of dollars were spent by both sides trying to get ahead of the other in terms of what they could do in space.

The United States and Russia had three major challenges they had to overcome:

  1. They had to successfully build a rocket that was fast enough to achieve orbit around Earth and later on, to break free of Earth's gravity in order to fly to the moon.
  2. They had to be able to build equipment that could work in the harsh environment of space.
  3. They had to figure out a way to transport people safely into space and bring them back again.

It wasn't easy! The first rockets didn't work that well.



Click on the Play button below to watch a video to see some of the accidents that have happened as a part of space exploration.

 



One of the first things that had to be figured out was how fast a rocket would have to go in order to be able to achieve a successful orbit around the Earth. It was calculated that the rocket would need to go at least 28,000 km ⁄ h!

At first, the Soviets were ahead of the Americans. They launched the first satellite; they put the first man in space (Yuri Gagarin). He orbited the Earth on April 12th, 1961. Alan Shepard, an American, orbited the Earth less than one month later. That is how close the two programs were at the time.




However, the Americans were the first to send men to the moon. Apollo 8 was the first rocket to the moon. It was launched on December 21st, 1968. On July 20th, 1969, Neil Armstrong, who was part of the Apollo 11 mission, was the first man to step onto the moon. His famous words "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind" were said as he stepped onto the surface of the moon.

@creativecommons
 

Digging Deeper

On December 19th, 1972, Apollo 17 left the moon. Eugene Cernan was the last man to step foot on the moon. Nobody has been back since. Click on the Play button below to watch a video about Apollo 17.