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The Space Race
World War II ended in 1945
and the Cold War began
The United States and
Russia began to build
long-range rockets.
The Soviet’s Get The Atomic Bomb
• The next goal each nation competed for was the creation
of the Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) which
could deliver a nuclear weapon from the nation's soil to its
enemy's cities and military bases.
Propaganda:
the turtle,
The Effects of“Bert
the Nuclear
Arms”Race at Home
…created to stress the need to take
cover from flying glass and debris in
case of a raid.
Sputnik
• On October 4, 1957, the Soviets launched Sputnik, the first
artificial satellite, into orbit around the earth.
Sputnik weighed 184 pounds and was
23 inches in diameter.
This is the newspaper
headline from the time.
Sputnik stayed in orbit until January 4, 1958. It
burned up when re-entering earth’s atmosphere.
Sputnik II, launched on November 3, 1957,
carried a dog named Laika on board.
The New U.S. President
John F. Kennedy
announced on
May 25, 1961
that he planned to
send a man to the
moon before the
decade was
through.
The First Man To Orbit The Earth
On April 12, 1961, Yuri A. Gagarin was launched into space
aboard the Soviet vessel Vostok I. He went around once. It
took one hour and 28 minutes.
The First American In Space
On May 5, 1961, Alan B. Shepard
became the first American in space.
Soviet cosmonaut Valentina
Tereshkova was the first
woman to orbit earth. She
rode aboard Vostok 5 in June
of 1963.
Kennedy’s Death
On November 22, 1963, President John F. Kennedy
was assassinated. His death drove the country to
complete the goal of putting man on the moon.
U.S. Lands On The Moon
On July 20, 1969, astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz
Aldrin became the first men to reach the moon.
The United States Wins the Space Race
The Cold War continued after the Space Race until the
break up of the Soviet Union, which would not occur until
20 years later.
After the Space Race…
America lost interest in the moon and
shifted it’s concentration to building
the Skylab space station.
The Soviets never did send a man to the moon, but
they did send robots.
They sent back all video footage and photographs they
took of the moon.
The Russians had lost
the space race and the
United States had
emerged victorious.
• The Space Race
• Kennedy Speech