The Space Race was an influential time period in American and Soviet history which took place from 1957 to 1975. The event that first triggered the Space Race was when the Soviet Union launched the first artificial satellite in Space, Sputnik 1, on October 4, 1957. It shocked and struck fear into the whole world especially America since it showed the US public that the Soviet Union was more technologically advanced. Sputnik orbited the earth and transmitted radio signals for only three weeks but still, this was a great accomplishment. In response, America established NASA to compete with Soviet technology. “In addition, a greater emphasis on math and physical sciences was introduced to the American school system for the future development of …show more content…
This was just the beginning of the space race that would span till 1975. The end of the space race could mainly be attributed to America’s Apollo 11 landing on the moon. To get to this point though, America had to develop many new technologies and push themselves to compete with the Soviet Union. To see to what extent American rocket science advanced in 1969, we need to look at the years prior to 1969 and also their competitor, the Soviet Union. “By 1930, over half of farms in the United States had automobiles, about a third had telephones, and smaller percentages had electricity and radios.” (Craig, 2). America was clearly on the path to becoming a world power and contending with countries like Britain and the Soviet Union. Through 1969, America went through a lot of technological advancements especially in space technology because of their competition from the Soviet Union. “US. engineers built progressively more reliable and capable satellites that did not need to be replaced as often as older satellites. The infrastructure of the …show more content…
William P. Barry from NASA says “The space program of the 1960s didn't just send humans to the Moon; it created a robotic program of exploration that has taken us throughout the solar system with many adventures and discoveries of other worlds.” Furthermore, American space technology had to have advanced astonishingly to go from looking towards the moon to actually visiting it, as in the year 1969, when Apollo 11 finally landed on the moon. “Other technologies like breathing apparatuses, fabric structures, communications and protective coatings that made man’s step on the moon possible, soon led to giant leaps in technology on Earth.” (“Benefits from Apollo: Giant Leaps in Technology.”, NASA). Due to the space race and the Apollo 11 landing on the moon, America was able to make many new leaps in different areas of technologies post-1969. Lastly, after this event, NASA looked even further beyond in outer space, and space technology began advancing to make these ambitions become a