Who won the space race? - Jeff Steers

View full lesson: http://ed.ted.com/lessons/what-was-the-point-of-the-space-race-jeff-steers

On October 4, 1957, the Soviet Union launched the satellite Sputnik and, with it, an international space race. The United States and the Soviet Union rushed to declare dominance of space for 18 years, until the two countries agreed to a more collaborative model. The real winner? Science. Jeff Steers describes the history -- and the benefits -- of the space race.

Lesson by Jeff Steers, animation by The Moving Company Animation Studio.

On October 4, 1957,

the world watched in awe and fear

as the Soviet Union launched Sputnik,

the world's first man-made satellite,

into space.

This little metal ball,

smaller than two feet in diameter,

launched a space race

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

that would last for eighteen years

and change the world as we know it.

Sputnik was actually not the first piece

of human technology to enter space.

That superlative goes to the V-2 rocket

used by Germany in missile attacks

against Allied cities

as a last-ditch effort

in the final years of World War II.

It wasn't very effective,

but, at the end of the war,

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

the technology

and the scientists that had developed it

and began using them for their own projects.

And by August 1957,

the Soviet's successfully tested

the first inter-continental ballistic missile, the R-7,

the same rocket that would be used

to launch Sputnik two months later.

So, the scary thing about Sputnik

was not the orbiting ball itself,

but the fact that the same technology

could be used to launch a nuclear warhead

at any city.

Not wanting to fall too far behind,

President Eisenhower ordered the Navy

to speed up its own project

and launch a satellite as soon as possible.

So, on December 6, 1957,

excited people across the nation

tuned in to watch the live broadcast

as the Vanguard TV3 satellite took off

and crashed to the ground two seconds later.

The Vanguard failure was a huge embarassment

for the United States.

Newspapers printed headlines like,

"Flopnik" and "Kaputnik".

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

that the U.S. should receive foreign aid

for a developing nation.