The Space Race was a time of competition between to two Cold War rivals, the US and the Soviet Union, in the discovery and exploration of space. The Space Race was a part of the Cold War and was another form of competition between them. This competition during the Space Race for breakthrough research in space exploration led to discoveries about space in a period of time that has not been rivaled by discoveries made after the end of the space race and the decrease in competition. This competition created an emphasis on researching space and shortened the time it would have most likely taken had there been no rivalry. The Space Race is considered to have started when the United States announced their plans for a satellite and the Soviet Union announced the same thing a few days later. This was a clear demonstration of the rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union in the Cold War. This was the first goal of many in the Space Race. This race sparked more curiosity for further exploration of the expanses of space which …show more content…
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration, or NASA, was founded in 1958 shortly after this spark of exploration. NASA was the organization in the United States dedicated to research and exploration of space. NASA had many different programs throughout the race such as the Project Gemini, Project Mercury, and Project Apollo. These were some of the names of the projects that had specific goals in the race. All of these programs aimed to complete one of the firsts of space travel before the Soviet Union could. In the beginning of the race, many failed to achieve this goal. They had lost the race for the first satellite, first unmanned lunar probe, and first human in space. NASA soon accomplished all of this shortly after the Soviet Union had but they were still losing the