Documented: The Cold War and Space Exploration

Are you mystified by the objects in the sky? People have been wondering about the universe since humans appeared on Earth. Questions like why the moon sometimes disappeared, or why stars sometimes fell from the sky have been answered, but we are still left with new questions. Not many years ago, the United States and other countries around the world started to embark on the journey to explore space. Russia started the Space Age with the launch of the first artificial, satellite Sputnik 1, into space on October 4, 1957. This marked the beginning of the Cold War and the space era.

This happened after World War II. Due to the intense rivalry mounting between the communist and non-communist nations, a “cold war” started. The war was called that because there was no armed or “hot” conflict; instead, they fought indirectly by taking part in conflicts around the world. The USA and USSR both developed inter-continental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) and hydrogen bombs. It was on that October day that the Soviets used a missile to launch Sputnik 1 into space and the “arms race evolved into a space race” (Essortment).

This event made space exploration part of daily conversations of everyone around the world. The author Homer Hickam clearly demonstrates this in his book, October Sky, where Sonny, the main character, gets an interest in the subject of space exploration after he sees the satellite Sputnik 1 pass above his house. He first hears about it, one early morning, when his mom wakes him up after hearing about the launch by the Soviets. Although she is clueless about what the radio presenter was talking about, Sonny figures he was talking about a satellite because of all the science fiction books he reads and his dad’s science magazines. His interest grows so much that he is “fascinated by the whole thing.” He reads articles that have reference to “Cape” and keeps himself close to the television set, “for the latest on what they were doing.” When he says “Cape,” he is talking about Cape Canaveral in Florida, where the American scientists and engineers were “desperately working to catch up with the Russians” (Hickam).

It was on November 3, of the same year, that Sputnik 2 was launched, with a dog named Laika in it. However, it did not take long before the United States launched their first satellite.

With the help of German émigré Wernher von Braun, and the V-2 rocket, upgraded with designs for very powerful rocket engines, the United States had the ability to become part of the Space Age. In 1958, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) was formed to become a good example for technological excellence, which was another goal of the United States with its participation in the Cold War, to demonstrate a superiority in technology by claiming mastery of the sky. It was on January 31, 1958, that Satellite 1958 Alpha (sometimes referred to as Explorer 1) was the first United States satellite launched into space. In April, Russia was the first to launch a piloted space flight. The person who orbited the Earth was cosmonaut Yuri A. Gagarin (Booth).

There was one group before von Braun and NASA that also made major contributions to space exploration and still is one of the leading centers for planetary exploration. It was formed by a group of Caltech graduates who began experimenting with rockets in 1944, but did not want to take part in the race for political prestige; they did it for scientific investigation. And they did accomplish lots of goals, like the Mariner 2 travel-by of Venus in December, 1962 (Booth).

The Russians were viewed as rivals, and they were very smart in the eyes of Americans. Other space probes had been launched and had reached their destinations, like Mercury and Venus, before the trip to the moon. On July 20, 1969, the United States made a great advancement when astronauts Neil A. Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed the Apollo 11 lunar module. That day, Armstrong became the first man to set foot on the moon.

The Cold War started to fade around 1970 when both countries began to pursue different goals in space.

These events led to the beginning of the Space Age, which won’t have an end because the universe does not end and still continues to grow. We could say that if there had been no Cold War, there would not have been so much advancement in space exploration, because the Cold War was the drive that led to major steps in the journey of humanity to explore the unknown.




Works Cited
Booth, Nicholas. Exploring The Solar System . Cambridge: Cambridge University press, 1995.
Essortment. 5 September 2007 .
Hickam, Homer. October Sky. New York: Delacort Press, 1998.