The Space Race is one of the most interesting stories of human history. It is a captivating story full with surprises and setbacks covering a period of time which witnessed one of the highest level of technological growth in human history. Space Race took place in the third quarter of 20th century between the two superpowers of the post-world war II world – Russia and USA. The main motive of this race was to establish technological supremacy in the space, the next frontier and to further solidify its position at earth.
The beginnings of human exploration of space actually started in the beginning of 20th century when an American scientist Robert Goddard created world’s first liquid fueled rocket. Another German engineer Wernher von Braun, impressed by the works of Goddard, started working on rockets as a medium to explore space. Germany at that time was under the influence of Nazi party. Nazi leadership recognized the genius of Von Braun and gave him grants to create a powerful rocket that can offer payloads at greater distances to be used in war. During this time Von Braun worked on the V-2; world’s first long range ballistic missile. After Germany’s defeat in World War II, Russia and US became interested in the V2 rocket and a hunt for rocket parts and scientists who worked on the program started between both. Britain also launched Operation Backfire to gather as much resources and information about this new weapon of Germans. During the war, hundreds of rockets were shipped back to US and USSR research labs where they were analyzed. America got a huge victory when von Braun and his close group of scientist surrendered to American Army on May 2, 1945. Both Americans and the Russians started reverse engineering the rockets and soon produced copies of V2. Russian military saw the rockets as their next super weapon against the cold war with US. A rocket capable of taking nuclear payloads from Russia to US, will completely change the equations in the favor of Russians.
Russians started assembling a team for their mission led by Sergei Korolev which started working on this rocket. Although, the rocket he was developing was for military use, he had plans to use it for exploration of space. The Russian teams worked hard to develop an ICBM on the line of Stalin. In contrast to this, in America Von Braun and his group of scientists were involved in teaching the American scientists on the launch and operation of some basic rockets based on V2. The Russian team under Korolev got their first success when they created the world’s first ICBM – the R7 Semyorka rocket. This rocket was capable to taking a 3000 kg nuclear warhead to the range of up to 8000 km. While the Russians were busy developing the R7; the Americans were planning to launch few satellites in space for scientific purposes through their under development Vanguard rockets, being developed by US Navy. The Eisenhower government did not wanted to create a warmonger with this and thus chose the Vanguard rockets that were for research purposes rather than the Jupiter class of rockets being developed by von Braun and his group for military purposes. If Eisenhower had selected latter, US had been the first country to launch satellite in space. Korolev took advantage of the rivalries between US and USSR to convince the Soviet Academy of Science to create a commission whose sole purpose was to beat US to Earth Orbit, by launching a Soviet Satellite first. On October 4, 1957 Korolev launched Sputnik 1 as the first satellite in space by humans on its R7 rocket. This event shocked the world and caused Sputnik crisis in America. The Eisenhower government now being criticized by media and people, put more emphasis on Vanguard program and launched a slew of measure like National Defense Education Act, which poured billions of dollars to improve American technological advantage and bring back the hurt pride of US back to its glory days.
The US was still recuperating from this event, when the Soviets gave another serious blow to America by launching another satellite Sputnik 2 in space on November 3, 1957. But, this time, there was a living being on the satellite, a female dog named Laika. This was the first time in human history that a living being was launched into outer space. While the launch of Sputnik 2, brought fears in the mind of Americans of Soviets superiority in science and technology, the Russians were basking in glory. The media and the scientific community called this flight as the precursor to the first manned spaceflight. The Eisenhower government, now under pressure from rising clamour, changed its policy and instructed the Army to prepare for a satellite launch using Jupiter rockets. Meanwhile the launch date of first Vanguard rocket came near. On 6th December, the first Vanguard rocket was to be launched to put America’s first satellite in orbit. The event was a much publicized event, with lot of the event being broadcasted on television. But contrary to hopes of America , the rocket failed to launch and exploded on Launchpad. It was another serious blow to the reputation of America and to the Western World. While the Soviets were breaking one after another frontier of space, the Americans were not even able to launch their rockets. On January 31, 1958 the Army’s satellite launch was scheduled using the Juno rocket which was derived from the Jupiter class of rockets. The launch became successfully and US launched its first satellite Explorer 1 into the orbit. It was this Explorer 1 that discovered the Van Allen radiation belts.
This launch proved to be a confidence booster, and the US Space Program started catching speed. To add to this, the Eisenhower administration created a civil space agency NASA on July 29, 1958 when he signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act. While the Americans were gaining in space, the Russians were still tangled in bureaucratic struggles. Even after lobbying for months, Korolev was not able to get sufficient support and funding from the government. Although, the Kremlin was happy with the glory that the first satellite launches brought; the program was still being dominated by the military. But the one lead taken by Korolev was in the rockets; the Russian R7 was the most advanced and heavy launch rocket of its day. The rocket was also much more reliable than American counterparts. Taking advantage of this fact, Korolev launched missions to moon – the Luna series of launches that became the first spacecraft’s to reach moon and take pictures of far side of moon. This was another shock to Americans who were now sure of the Russian supremacy in space. Eisenhower believed that America needed to increase its technological sophistication as US scientists were falling behind the Russian Scientists. On September 2nd 1958, he signed a bill to increase the funding for education and research at all levels with a bill – National Defense Education Act.
Meanwhile the Russians were trying a different sort of experiment, to launch living beings to space and bring them back. They launched a series of crafts to bring back dogs from space. But, it failed. This brought much criticism to Russian government and they warned Korolev that if any other such incident occurs, the program will be scrapped. But, Korolev, made impossible into possible with his sheer ingenuity. On August 19 1960, Sputnik 5 was launched which took dogs, mice and plants to orbit and brought them back successfully. It was now clear which way the Russian program was going. It came true when on April 12 1961, news came from East that Russians have launched Vostok 1. The Russians had launched the first human spaceflight. The Vostok – K rocket carried Yuri Gagarin to space in the Vostok spacecraft, where he orbited earth once and returned back safely. The flight took 108 minutes from launch to landing and is the shortest manned spaceflight till date.
The reactions were mixed feelings. While officially US congratulated Russia over the first human spaceflight, internally there were concerns over the future implications of this event. This led to greater pressure on Kennedy government to prove US supremacy in space and is considered an important factor for Kennedy’s declaration of Space Race. Jawaharlal Nehru, the then prime minister of India congratulated Soviets for “ a great victory of man over the forces of nature”. This part of the race was over, and the other was beginning to start. This race was won by Russians, but the Americans were determined to win the next and show their industrial and scientific prowess. Only time knew, what was coming next; but the whole world was waiting eagerly on its heels to see that.
