The Space Race was a heated competition between the United States and the Soviet Union in the exploration of outer space. It involved pioneering efforts to launch artificial satellites, send man into space, and land him on the Moon.
The Space Race occurred during the Cold War and had its origins in the missile-based arms race between the two nations. It effectively began with the Soviet launch of Sputnik 1 on 4 October 1957, and ended in a period of detente with the co-operative Apollo-Soyuz Test Project flight in July 1975. In between, it became a focus of the cultural, technological, and ideological rivalry between the two nations. It provided the side benefits of societal morale boosting, and civilian and military applications of the developed space technology. Rockets have interested scientists and amateurs for centuries. The Chinese used them as weapons beginning in the Song Dynasty, and simple (but inaccurate) iron rockets were common ship-and land-based weapons by the 19th century.
Russian pioneer Konstantin Tsiolkovsky theorized in the 1880s on multi-stage, liquid fuel rockets which might reach space and established the basics of rocket science. His rocket equation which determines flight velocity based on propellant consumption, is still used in the design of modern rockets today. Tsiolkovsky also wrote the first theoretical description of a man-made satellite.
Shortly after the fall of 1914, American Robert H. Goddard wrote a thesis, A Method of Reaching Extreme Altitudes after receiving two patents on elements of rocket propulsion. The paper was published by the Smithsonian Institution and gained him a $5,000 research grant, but unfortunately resulted in negative publicity for Goddard, ignoring his careful research and characterizing him as the "crackpot moon man." By 1926, he had built rockets and started outdoor testing, launching the first known liquid-fueled rocket. By 1929, he had attracted the attention of Mrs. Harry Guggenheim and Charles Lindberg. This resulted in another research grant of $100,000 from the Guggenheim Foundation, which allowed him to move to Roswell, NM to work on bigger and more complex designs. While his first design was uncontrolled, he later invented gyro-stabilized systems that foreshadowed those used in later practical space vehicles.
However, the realization of such vehicles required large amounts of capital, labor and material. Private enterprise would only undertake this given a profitable market, and as most of the public still scoffed at the idea of real-world space travel, this did not exist. Therefore, this implied the necessity of government sponsorship.
The Space Race occurred during the Cold War and had its origins in the missile-based arms race between the two nations. It effectively began with the Soviet launch of Sputnik 1 on 4 October 1957, and ended in a period of detente with the co-operative Apollo-Soyuz Test Project flight in July 1975. In between, it became a focus of the cultural, technological, and ideological rivalry between the two nations. It provided the side benefits of societal morale boosting, and civilian and military applications of the developed space technology. Rockets have interested scientists and amateurs for centuries. The Chinese used them as weapons beginning in the Song Dynasty, and simple (but inaccurate) iron rockets were common ship-and land-based weapons by the 19th century.
Russian pioneer Konstantin Tsiolkovsky theorized in the 1880s on multi-stage, liquid fuel rockets which might reach space and established the basics of rocket science. His rocket equation which determines flight velocity based on propellant consumption, is still used in the design of modern rockets today. Tsiolkovsky also wrote the first theoretical description of a man-made satellite.
Shortly after the fall of 1914, American Robert H. Goddard wrote a thesis, A Method of Reaching Extreme Altitudes after receiving two patents on elements of rocket propulsion. The paper was published by the Smithsonian Institution and gained him a $5,000 research grant, but unfortunately resulted in negative publicity for Goddard, ignoring his careful research and characterizing him as the "crackpot moon man." By 1926, he had built rockets and started outdoor testing, launching the first known liquid-fueled rocket. By 1929, he had attracted the attention of Mrs. Harry Guggenheim and Charles Lindberg. This resulted in another research grant of $100,000 from the Guggenheim Foundation, which allowed him to move to Roswell, NM to work on bigger and more complex designs. While his first design was uncontrolled, he later invented gyro-stabilized systems that foreshadowed those used in later practical space vehicles.
However, the realization of such vehicles required large amounts of capital, labor and material. Private enterprise would only undertake this given a profitable market, and as most of the public still scoffed at the idea of real-world space travel, this did not exist. Therefore, this implied the necessity of government sponsorship.
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