The Space Race: Revolutionary To Space Exploration

The Space Race The Space Race was revolutionary to space exploration we all know today. As Neil Armstrong said as he took step on the moon, “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” The space race opened many more doors for space missions by proving that the United States (U.S.) had the technology to do so much more as well. According to an article entitled “Space Race” by history.com, the Space Race was triggered during the Cold War between the U.S. and Soviet Union. Both countries wanted to prove they had the best technology, science, and economic systems. The U.S. and the Soviet Union realized after World War II that rocket research would be very vital to their own military tactics. The Space Race is believed to have

There were many Apollo missions leading up to the moon landing, but almost all were tests for the commanders and pilots to become familiar with the technology inside of the module. The Apollo 11 mission took three days. Before accelerating to the moon, the S-IVB engine orbited earth for just a little over two and a half hours. This was vital for being able to reach a velocity required to be able to escape Earth’s gravitational pull. There were many issues landing the module on the moon. Armstrong realized as they got closer to the moon’s surface, that the module was destined to land in a boulder field on the moon. He immediately took manual control of the module. He had to fly the module horizontally across the surface of the moon until he found a safe spot to land. He knew that the landing location would need to be close, because the module was quickly running out of fuel. Armstrong successfully landed the module on the moon with just seventeen seconds of fuel left. Armstrong was the first to step out of the module onto the moon, and was followed by the module pilot, Buzz

This spacecraft swung past Jupiter on February 2007 for a gravity boost before continuing on the rest of the venture of the mission that was intended for a flyby of the dwarf planet, Pluto. On July 14, 2015, New Horizons made the closest approach to Pluto, sending back many pictures of the planet. Now, as part of the extended mission (pending NASA approval), the spacecraft is expected to head further into the Kuiper Belt. If able to, New Horizons will be examining ancient, icy mini-worlds that are at least a billion miles outside of Neptune’s orbit.

We chose the Space Race as our topic of research, because the events of the Space Race became very vital to the space exploration we all know, and are familiar with today. The Space Race is not examined closely enough today for students to get a good grasp of why the events are so important to us today. This is why we thought it would be both interesting and educational to our viewers to learn more about the events leading up to a man on the moon, and also what NASA has and is still accomplishing in more recent