A TIMELINE

COLD WAR AND THE

SPACE RACE

SPACE RACE• From the 1950s to the 1970s, both the United

States and Soviet Union struggled to outdo each other in space exploration in terms of technological advancements and achievements.

• Each spent millions of dollars developing rockets, putting satellites into orbit, training astronauts, launching space missions, attempting to land men on the Moon and bring them home safely.

SPACE RACE• Both sides would use their inventions and

achievements as public events and utilize extensive media coverage and propaganda.

• As they competed each superpower repeatedly claimed to be ahead of the other in space exploration.

• The “Space Race” was a means of competition between the two superpowers during the overall Cold War.

SPACE RACE• The “Space Race”

unfolded as a series of key events / achievements between the two superpowers.

OCT 4 1957• The Soviet Union launches

the first satellite into space, called Sputnik 1.

• It was a 58 cm (23 in) diameter polished metal sphere, with four external radio antennas to broadcast radio pulses.

• It was visible all around the Earth and its radio pulses were detectable.

• The surprise of its success is considered to have sparked the “Space Race”.

OCT 4 1957• Sputnik 1 provided scientists with valuable information.

• The density of the upper atmosphere could be deduced from its drag on the orbit, and the propagation of its radio signals gave information about the ionosphere.

• The satellite travelled at about 29,000 kilometres per hour (18,000 mph; 8,100 m/s), taking 96.2 minutes to complete each orbit.

• It’s radio signals continued for 22 days until the transmitter batteries ran out on October 26, 1957.

NOV 3 1957• The Soviet Union launches Sputnik 2.

• Second spacecraft launched into Earth’s orbit, and the first to carry a living animal, a dog named Laika.

NOV 3 1957• Sputnik 2 was a 4-metre (13 foot) high cone-

shaped capsule with a base diameter of 2 metres (6.6 feet) that weighed around 500 kg.

NOV 3 1957• Engineering and biological data were

transmitted to Earth for a 15 minute period during each orbit.

• Two photometers were on board for measuring solar radiation (ultraviolet and x-ray emissions) and cosmic rays.

JAN 31 1958• The first American satellite, called Explorer 1,

was launched into orbit.

JAN 31 1958• The total weight of the satellite was 13.37

kilograms (30.80 lb), of which 8.3 kg (18.3 lb) were instrumentation. In comparison the first Soviet satellite Sputnik 1 weighed 83.6 kg (184 lb).

• It was the first spacecraft to detect the Van Allen radiation belt (layers of energetic charged particles (plasma) that is held in place around the planet Earth by the planet's magnetic field), returning data until its batteries were exhausted after nearly four months.

MAR 5 1958• The USA fails to launch its

second satellite, called Explorer 2.

• Explorer 2 failed to reach orbit after a malfunction caused the fourth stage of the rocket to not ignite.

MAR 17 1958• The USA launched the Vanguard 1

satellite into space.

• It was the fourth satellite launched (after Sputnik 1, Sputnik 2, and Explorer 1), but the first satellite to be solar powered.

• Although communication with it was lost in 1964, it remains the oldest manmade satellite still in orbit.

• It was designed to test the launch capabilities of a three-stage launch vehicle as a part of Project Vanguard, and the effects of the environment on a satellite and its systems in Earth orbit.

OCT 1 1958• The USA creates the

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

• It is the United States government agency that is responsible for the civilian space program as well aeronautics and aerospace research.

APR 12 1961• Yuri Gagarin orbits the

Earth once and becomes the first man in space.

• In case spaceflight caused Gagarin to behave strangely, the craft's controls were locked.

• Once he was low enough, he ejected and used a parachute.

MAY 5 1961• The first American is sent

into space.

• The United States sends astronaut Alan Shepard on a 15-minute, 28-second sub-orbital flight onboard Freedom 7.

FEB 20 1962• The first American to orbit

the earth.

• John Glenn circles Earth three times in 4 hours and 56 minutes.

• Aboard Friendship 7 on the Mercury-Atlas 6 mission, circling the globe three times.

• This made Glenn the third American in space and the fifth human being in space.

SEP 2 1962• President John F. Kennedy challenges the nation to go

to the Moon before the end of the decade.“We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade, and do the other things – not because they are easy, but because they are hard. Because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills. Because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win.”

JUN 16 1963• The first woman in space.

• The Soviets launch Valentina Tereshkova on Vostok 6.

• She spends three days alone in space.

MAR 18 1965• Cosmonaut Alexei Leonov takes

the first space walk, outside Voshkod 2.

• He was outside the spacecraft for 12 minutes and nine seconds, connected to the craft by a 5.35-meter tether.

• At the end of the spacewalk, Leonov's spacesuit had inflated in the vacuum of space to the point where he could not re-enter the airlock.

• He opened a valve to allow some of the suit's pressure to bleed off and was barely able to get back inside the capsule.

JUN 3 1965• During the Gemini 4

mission Ed White became the first American to conduct a spacewalk.

• The spacewalk started at 3:45 p.m. EDT on the third orbit when White opened the hatch and used the hand-held maneuvering oxygen-jet gun to push himself out of the capsule.

• It lasted 23 minutes.

JULY 20 1969• The spaceflight that lande

d the first humans on the Moon, Americans Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, was called Apollo 11.

JULY 20 1969• Armstrong became the

first to step onto the lunar surface six hours later on July 2.

• Armstrong spent about two and a half hours outside the spacecraft, Aldrin slightly less, and together they collected 47.5 pounds (21.5 kg) of lunar material for return to Earth.

JULY 20 1969• The moon landing is often

seen as the symbolic end of the Space Race as the USA had won the “race to the moon”.

• By the mid-1970’s the USA and the Soviet Union would begin an era of cooperation rather than competition.