Space Race Essay

Did you know that the Space Race lasted twenty years? The Space Race, which included the USA and the Soviet Union, was a competition between these two countries that motivated engineers around the world to excel in space technology. The race also sped up the pace in which space technology advanced and eventually led to the landing on the moon. Some may say the Space Race provided no real benefit, but history proves otherwise. Without the race there would be no inspiration to develop the missions that have taken place, and without that competition some technicians and engineers may have seen no benefit or point to accomplishments that took place in space. The Space Race provided several goals such as successful technology and missions completed within a certain duration of time, therefore, without the space race we as humans and Americans would not be where we are today with space travel and technology.

Imagine modern space technology without NASA! History.com states,“In 1958 the United States launched its own satellite, Explorer I, designed by the U.S Army under the direction of rocket scientist Wernher von Braun. That same year, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed a public order creating the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), a federal agency dedicated to space exploration.” NASA was a project designed for the space race, and was created to go against the Soviet satellite Sputnik, but obviously continued afterwards, as seen by modern space missions. One could say the space race did not cause NASA to exist, and that space technology would have thrived either way, but many researchers believe that the launch of Sputnik led to the creation of