The Space Race

Created By

Brenna Wynn Greer, Wellesley College


Subjects
  • The Cold War, 1945-1975: Race for Military and Technological Supremacy
  • The Cold War, 1945-1975: Containment and Early Cold War Conflicts

Introduction & Context

During World War II, the United States and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) had been allies, both members of the Allied Powers. But this was a marriage of convenience. When the war ended, tensions brewing between the democratic and capitalist United States and the communist Soviet Union crystallized into the Cold War. From the late 1940s through the 1980s, the conflict between these two superpowers shaped global politics and determined the priorities of each nation state. Space exploration became a central means through which the United States and the Soviet Union sought to demonstrate national strength and superiority. As was true of the nuclear arms race, technological advances central to the space race – such as rockets, satellites, space stations, and space transportation systems – were considered military assets that contributed to national security. In the early years of the space race, the Soviet Union was soundly out front, with early victories such as the 1957 launch of the satellite Sputnik 1 and cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin’s successful orbit of the earth in 1961. In response to Sputnik, the U.S. government established the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to advance the American space program. Sputnik also compelled Congress – with strong encouragement from President Eisenhower – to pass the National Defense Education Act (NDEA), which provided student loans for the study of math, science, and languages in college, and marked the first time the federal government directly funded higher education.

In the 1960s, NASA’s Mercury, Saturn, Gemini, and Apollo programs culminated in the United States landing the first man on the moon in 1969 – a decisive Cold War victory. Following the moon landing, NASA began developing the space shuttle program, an initiative organized around reusable space transportation vehicles that could carry people and cargo into space. During the same period, the Soviet Union became increasingly handicapped as a contestant in the space race because the cost of space exploration and the arms race was crippling to the Soviet economy. Ultimately, in 1991, the United States won the space race by default, when the Soviet Union collapsed and the Cold War ended. However, the 1986 Challenger and 2003 Columbia space shuttle disasters, which killed 14 astronauts, including school teacher Christa McAuliffe, and resulted in the loss of billions of dollars, led the American public to question the value of NASA and space exploration.

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Teaching Tips Download PDF

Introduction

As a collection, this set of sources provides a broad history of how federal and state authorities have tried to curtail drug use, abuse, and trafficking. These audio and video clips document the circumstances that led President Nixon to launch the war on drugs, which law enforcement took up at every level of government. These sources demonstrate a range of opinions about the measures used in the war on drugs, and they provide testimonies about how enforcement of anti-drug policies affected different populations, especially along lines of race and class.

Background Information

Before engaging with this resource set, students should be familiar with the following:

  • Forms of political dissent and counterculture movements of the 1960s, including various people’s rights movements (civil rights, gay rights, women’s liberation, Black Power), the student movement, anti-war movement, the rise of beat culture and hippies, and the rise of suburbs and resulting urban decay

  • U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War


Essential Question

What was the significance of the space race in U.S. history?


General Discussion Questions

  • What is the relationship between the Cold War and the U.S. space program?
  • How did the U.S. respond to the push for military superiority in space?
  • What national priorities are reflected in how the U.S. space program developed?


Classroom Activities

1) Ask students to listen to and watch the following sources:

How do these different sources present the value of space exploration? What were perceptions of the relationship between the U.S. space program and U.S. strength and security? What motivated the United States and Soviet Union to “race” when it came to space exploration?

2) Ask students to watch and listen to the following sources:

Based on these two sources, how has education figured into space exploration? What types of education were considered necessary within the context of the Cold War? What resources did the United States and Soviet Union put toward education within the context of the Space Race? Are effects of the relationship between education and the space race apparent in U.S. education today?

3) Ask students to watch and listen to the following sources:

What did the space race signal about national priorities, values, or ideals? In the United States, whose interests has space exploration served?


Citation

Greer, Brenna Wynn. "The Space Race" WGBH and the Library of Congress. https://americanarchive.org/primary_source_sets/space-race.

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