WEBVTT

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On October 4, 1957,

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the world watched in awe and fear

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as the Soviet Union launched Sputnik,

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the world's first man-made satellite,

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into space.

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This little metal ball,

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smaller than two feet in diameter,

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launched a space race

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between the U.S. and U.S.S.R.

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that would last for eighteen years

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and change the world as we know it.

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Sputnik was actually not the first piece

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of human technology to enter space.

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That superlative goes to the V-2 rocket

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used by Germany in missile attacks

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against Allied cities as a last-ditch effort

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in the final years of World War II.

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It wasn't very effective,

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but, at the end of the war,

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both the U.S. and U.S.S.R. had captured

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the technology and the scientists that had developed it

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and began using them for their own projects.

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And by August 1957,

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the Soviet's successfully tested

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the first intercontinental ballistic missile, the R-7,

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the same rocket that would be used

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to launch Sputnik two months later.

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So, the scary thing about Sputnik

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was not the orbiting ball itself,

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but the fact that the same technology

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could be used to launch a nuclear warhead at any city.

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Not wanting to fall too far behind,

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President Eisenhower ordered the Navy

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to speed up its own project

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and launch a satellite as soon as possible.

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So, on December 6, 1957,

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excited people across the nation

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tuned in to watch the live broadcast

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as the Vanguard TV3 satellite took off

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and crashed to the ground two seconds later.

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The Vanguard failure was a huge embarassment

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for the United States.

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Newspapers printed headlines like,

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"Flopnik" and "Kaputnik."

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And a Soviet delegate at the U.N. mockingly suggested

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that the U.S. should receive foreign aid

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for developing nations.

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Fortunately, the Army had been working

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on their own parallel project, The Explorer,

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which was successfully launched in January 1958,

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but the U.S. had barely managed to catch up

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before they were surpassed again

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as Yuri Gargarin became the first man in space

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in April 1961.

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Almost a year passed

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and several more Soviet astronauts

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completed their missions

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before Project Mercury succeeded

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in making John Glenn the first American

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in orbit in February 1962.

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By this time, President Kennedy had realized

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that simply catching up

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to each Soviet advance a few months later

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wasn't going to cut it.

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The U.S. had to do something first,

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and in May 1961, a month after Gargarin's flight,

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he announced the goal

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of putting a man on the moon

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by the end of the 1960s.

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They succeeded in this through the Apollo program

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with Neil Armstrong taking his famous step

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on July 20, 1969.

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With both countries' next turning their attention

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to orbital space stations,

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there's no telling how much longer

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the space race could have gone on.

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But because of improving relations

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negotiated by Soviet Premier Leonid Breshnev

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and U.S. President Nixon,

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the U.S.S.R. and U.S. moved toward cooperation

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rather than competition.

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The successful joint mission,

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known as Apollo-Soyuz,

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in which an American Apollo spacecraft

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docked with a Soviet Soyuz craft

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and the two crews met,

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shook hands,

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and exchanged gifts,

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marked the end of the space race in 1975.

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So, in the end, what was the point

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of this whole space race?

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Was it just a massive waste of time?

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Two major superpowers trying to outdo each other

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by pursuing symbolic projects

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that were both dangerous and expensive,

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using resources that could have been

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better spent elsewhere?

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Well, sure, sort of,

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but the biggest benefits of the space program

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had nothing to do with one country beating another.

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During the space race,

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funding for research and education, in general,

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increased dramatically,

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leading to many advances

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that may not have otherwise been made.

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Many NASA technologies developed for space

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are now widely used in civilian life,

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from memory foam in mattresses

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to freeze-dried food,

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to LEDs in cancer treatment.

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And, of course, the satellites that we rely on

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for our GPS and mobile phone signals

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would not have been there

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without the space program.

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All of which goes to show

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that the rewards of scientific research and advancement

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are often far more vast

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than even the people pursuing them can imagine.