Uri Gagarin Won For The Soviet Union And The United States

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Uri Gagarin became the first man to travel into space in 1961. This was a win for the Soviet Union and the United States was faced knowing that they were behind the Soviet’s in their space and technical superiority. Both countries were still in the middle of their cold war. President Kennedy knew that going to the moon was the Soviet’s ultimate goal and that they wanted to be the first to get there. On May 25, 1961 President Kennedy announced before a special joint session of congress his goal of “landing a man on the moon by the end of the decade and returning him safely to earth.” By the end of the day, the Apollo program had begun.

Harry W. Jones from the NASA Research Center stated, “The usual explanation

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