The space race between the United States and the Soviet Union was a key component of the broader Cold War rivalry that lasted from the late 1940s until the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. It was an intense technological competition to achieve milestones in space exploration and demonstrate superiority in rocketry, spacecraft capabilities, and spaceflight operations. The race originated from the missile-based nuclear arms race between the two superpowers following World War II.
Early Space Race (1957-1961)
- October 4, 1957: The Soviet Union launches Sputnik 1, the first artificial satellite.
- November 3, 1957: The Soviet Union launches Sputnik 2 with the dog Laika on board, the first animal in orbit.
- January 31, 1958: The United States launches Explorer 1, the first American satellite.
- April 12, 1961: Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin becomes the first human in space aboard Vostok 1, completing one orbit around the Earth.
- May 5, 1961: Alan Shepard becomes the first American in space aboard Mercury-Redstone 3 in a sub-orbital flight.
Race to the Moon (1961-1969)
- May 25, 1961: President John F. Kennedy sets the goal of “landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth” before the end of the 1960s.
- February 20, 1962: John Glenn becomes the first American to orbit the Earth aboard Friendship 7.
- June 16-19, 1963: Valentina Tereshkova becomes the first woman in space aboard Vostok 6.
- March 18, 1965: Alexei Leonov performs the first spacewalk during the Voskhod 2 mission.
- December 24, 1968: The crew of Apollo 8 becomes the first humans to orbit the Moon.
- July 20, 1969: Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin land on the Moon during the Apollo 11 mission, achieving Kennedy’s goal.
Cooperation in Space (1972-1975)
- May 1972: The US and Soviet Union negotiate an easing of tensions, leading to cooperation in space.
- July 17, 1975: The Apollo-Soyuz Test Project marks the first joint US-Soviet human spaceflight with a docking between the two craft, symbolically ending the space race.