The Origins of the Space Race

By Natale Chelsea, 2027

Published 11/25/2024

The Great Space Race: a defining period in American history, set in the backdrop of the Cold War. America and the USSR were battling out to see who could set foot on the Moon first. In a fierce competition to prove who could become more dominant and advanced in space exploration across 18 years, the U.S. and Soviet Union pushed technological boundaries to achieve remarkable milestones never seen before. But how did this all start, and why? What made these two countries want to battle in a completely new terrain? The Great Space Race wasn’t just about technological advancement; it was a conflict in a world riddled with uncertainty. 

But before humans could get into space and before anyone could consider stepping on the Moon, basic flight in a heavy machine had to be mastered. Ironically, it wasn’t the U.S. government or that of the Soviet Union that achieved this flight first; two bicycle repair shop owners in North Carolina beat them to it. From 1899 to 1903, brothers Orville and Wilbur Wright worked on achieving the first successful powered airplane. The brothers first tested their Wright Flyer in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina with a historic flight that lasted 12 seconds.

When the U.S. and USSR were locked in conflict over half of a century later, both nations decided to expand the Wright brothers’ aviation advances into a completely new frontier: outer space. 54 years after the Wright brothers’ first flight, the USSR became the first to successfully launch a satellite, Sputnik 1, into space on October 4, 1957. Four years later, Yuri Gagarin, a Russian pilot, would become the first man in space, securing the Soviet Union's lead in the Space Race.

With the growing tensions between the U.S. and Soviet Union, the U.S. promptly responded to Russia’s accomplishments by establishing NASA and launching their own satellite, Explorer 1, in 1958. In 1969, the U.S. claimed the title for putting the first man, American astronaut Neil Armstrong, on the Moon before the USSR could do so. Over the course of decades, the U.S. and USSR would continuously one-up each other’s space achievements, outdoing each other with each new milestone. 

The tension did not last forever, though. Six years after Neil Armstrong set foot on the Moon, American and Soviet astronauts would put aside their differences and shake hands in space on July 15, 1975.