Significant Events Of The Space Race During The Cold War

The Space Race was a significant event that occurred during the Cold War. Two countries, the United States, and the Soviet Union, competed for the moon. After WWII, the world knew that technology was developing enough to send people to space, and these two countries, amidst the Cold War, competed against each other to get a man on the moon first. In 1961 President John F. Kennedy declared that they would get a man on the moon by the end of the decade, so the race began. It was originally an arms race between the two countries and they were building missiles and other high-tech military equipment to demonstrate their power to one another and the rest of the world. After their technology developed more and more over time, the two countries decided

After the Soviet Union made the first of many achievements, such as the first moonwalk, the U.S. wasn’t far behind and was determined to achieve what the Soviets achieved and more. The Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo missions were all big steps for the U.S. toward a man on the moon. It wasn’t until 1969 when Apollo 11 landed on the moon and the U.S. supposedly won the Space Race. After twenty years of the Cold War still taking place, the Berlin Wall fell and eventually the Soviet Union did as well. After this time, the U.S. and Russia “entered into cooperative agreements, most notably the assembly and occupation of the International Space Station.” (“What Was the Space Race?”). The U.S. saw the landing on the moon as the end of the Space Race, but is still competing to achieve new things in space. This impacted the Cold War because both countries focused on space and technological developments. It changed the direction of the war because it turned it from a nuclear war to a space race. After the U.S. “beat” the Soviets to the moon, the Soviets seemed to have backed down from the race and changed their focus to different discoveries. This event is interesting and probably a better way of competing than a nuclear