Space Race

Space Race
Part of	Cold War
General Information
Start date	July 1955
End date	1997
Duration	42 years
Participants	United States    Soviet Union

The Space Race is a Cold War competition between the two adversaries, the Soviet Union and the United States, to achieve superior spaceflight capability.

The race started in the mid 50's with the aim to bring artificial satellites, and later on humans, to Earth's orbit. It continued with missions to the Moon with the ultimate goal to bring the first human to Earth's only natural satellite. After this was achieved by both superpowers, both of them establishing their own bases on the Moon and operate them for two decades, the next step in the Space Race became to be first on setting foot on Mars.

Following the formation of the Mars-7 Alliance in 1997, a majority of the space superpowers began to cooperate and work together, instead of compete.

History

Race to Earth's orbit

In 1955, both the United States and the Soviet Union announced their intention to bring artificial satellites to Earth's orbit. The Soviets subsequently beat the US in several disciplines:

• In 1957, they successfully launched the first satellite, Sputnik 1, also sending the first man-made signals from orbit, resulting in the so called "Sputnik crisis" in the western countries, especially the United States.
• Later in the same year, they sent with the dog Laika the first mammal into orbit around Earth.
• In 1960, the first animals, the two dogs Belka and Strelka, along with some mice, rats, flies and a rabbit, were returned to Earth alive from space with the Sputnik 5 mission.
• In 1961, the Soviets sent the first human, Yuri Gagarin, to space and safely brought him back to Earth after one full orbit.
• In 1963, Vostok 6 brought the first woman to space, Valentina Tereshkova.

The US scored some points as well, but overall the Soviets were ahead with more spectacular and more significant firsts on their side.

• In 1959, with Discoverer 1, the US launched the first satellite to a polar orbit, and Explorer 6 made the first photo of Earth from orbit in the same year.
• In 1960, NASA recovered the first satellite intact from orbit.
• In 1961, Mercury-Redstone 2 sent the first Hominidae to space, the chimpanzee "Ham the Astrochimp".

Race to the Moon

Race to the Moon
1)	First man on Moon: Alexei Leonov (USSR)
2)	First woman on Moon: Anastasia Belikova (USSR)
3)	First Moon base: Jamestown (US)
4)	First female US Astronaut: Molly Cobb   (Apollo 15)

Main article: Race to the Moon

Subsequently, the Space Race was then extended towards the Moon. Again, the Soviets achieved many goals before their competitors:

• In 1959, the Soviets were first to restart a rocket in orbit, send it to an escape trajectory and make a lunar fly-by.
• In the same year, Soviet's Luna 2 was the first spacecraft to reach the surface of the Moon.
• Also in 1959, with Luna 3, they made the first photos of the far side of the Moon and used a slingshot maneuver to bring the spacecraft back to Earth's orbit.
• In 1966, with Luna 9, the Soviets were first to successfully soft-land a spacecraft on another celestial body, the Moon.

Note: At this point, the alternate history of For All Mankind deviates from reality.

• On June 26, 1969, Alexei Leonov was the first man to set foot on the Moon, achieving the most important goal in the Space Race for the Soviet Union and again putting NASA, the US, and the whole western world into shock.
• The United States matched some weeks later on July 20 with Apollo 11, sending its lander with Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin aboard to the surface of the Moon, but only to be beaten by the Soviets again on September 16th, when they landed the first woman, Anastasia Belikova, on Earth's natural satellite.

During the following years, both the United States and the Soviet Union built and maintained their base stations, Jamestown (US) and Zvezda (USSR), on the surface of the Moon. Both countries built their bases close to the Shackleton Crater at the lunar south pole, leading to further tension for the mining of ice from that crater.

Gallery

Alexei Leonov's first step on the moon

Soviet flag on the Moon

President Nixon watching the Soviets land on the Moon

Red Moon - The US is shocked

Apollo 11 with landing module over the Moon

NASA Mission Control during first manned US landing

US flag set on the Moon

US base "Jamestown", early stage

Jamestown in 1994

Soviet base "Svezda"

Apollo 11 plaque if the US would have been first

Race to Mars

Race the Mars
1)	Sojourner 1 (USA)
2)	Mars-94 (USSR)
3)	Phoenix (Helios)
4)	First man on Mars: Lee Jung-Gil   (North Korea)

Main article: Race to Mars

In the early 1990s, both superpowers announced their goal to send humans to Mars by 1996. However, in mid 1992, entrepreneur and CEO of the private space manufacturer Helios Aerospace, Dev Ayesa, announced their participation in this competition, putting even more pressure on both countries' space agencies by their declared plan of using the 1994 launch window, 2 years earlier than the other two had been planning for. Subsequently, both NASA and Roscosmos intensified their preperations to move their missions forward and match with Helios to not be left behind.

In fall 1994, all three competitors launched their spacecraft to a trajectory to Mars within a 2 weeks launch window. First, Helios started their spaceship Phoenix out of Earth's orbit, where it had been built partly from the former space station Polaris. The United States started their spacecraft Sojourner 1 from Jamestown on the Moon, where it had also been assembled and tested, while the Soviets launched their Mars-94 mission craft from their cosmodrome in Baikonur on Earth.

Gallery

Race to Mars, from Helios Mission Control

Helios' Phoenix injection burn to leave Earth orbit towards Mars

Phoenix on the way to Mars

NASA's Sojourner on the Moon

Sojourner launch to Mars

Sojourner approacing Mars

Soviet's Mars-94 launch

Mars-94 spacecraft on the way to Mars

The Race to Mars in the News

See also

• Apollo missions
• Jamestown - US Moon base
• Zvezda - Soviet Moon base
• Sojourner 1 - US Mars spacecraft
• Mars-94 - Soviet Mars spacecraft
• Phoenix - Helios Mars spacecraft
• Cold War

External links

•   Space Race on Wikipedia
•   Timeline of the Space Race on Wikipedia