America's Impact On The Space Race

Throughout history people have strived to improve technology and discover more information about the world and its universe. During the Cold War, the Soviet Union and the United States competed against each other in order to prove they were superior in space exploration. Being the first to send a satellite into space or land a man on the moon ultimately demonstrates advanced science programs, technology, and economic status. Therefore when the Soviet Union launched the first hand made satellite, the United States raced to build, test, and launch one of their own. After several failures, the United States had their first success on March 17, 1958 and within the next few months, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) was founded.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration was founded during the 1957 to 1975 space race between the Soviet Union and United States and soon began changing society with the world's first moon landing. A crisis emerged in America after “the successful launch of the 183-pound Sputnik I satellite into orbit by the Soviet Union, followed by the half-ton Sputnik II on November 3, which carried a live dog into orbit” (Spradley). By sending a dog into orbit, the Soviet Union’s intentions of sending humans into orbit became apparent. Not only were Americans concerned about falling behind in modern technology, but they feared that the Soviets were capable of building missiles that could carry nuclear weapons to the United States. After WWII ended, German Scientists were brought to America to help build a rocket. This committee was lead by Wernher Von Braun and made significant progress, however President Dwight D. Eisenhower was concerned about how the public would react to the launching of a military rocket made by Nazi scientists. And for this reason, an incomplete rocket
Not only did The Apollo Program prove NASA’s capabilities, but other space projects have also had significant accomplishments. Throughout the 1990’s and 2000’s, various spacecrafts were sent into space to explore the Earth, Sun, Mercury, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Jupiter. NASA’s Discovery program, one of their low cost missions that focuses on the solar system, sent the Hubble Space Telescope in April 1990 to orbit Earth and take photographs of its atmosphere. The photos taken by Hubble “revolutionized ideas about the universe, contributing to the discovery of dark energy, a force that caused the universe to expand at an ever-increasing rate, and the discovery and characterization of planets outside the solar system” (Flynn). For centuries, humans have had limited knowledge about space and the planets that occupy it, however, The Hubble Space Telescope expanded the world’s knowledge on astronomy. Voyager 1 and 2 were also used to explore the outer parts of the solar system, and due to the lack of sunlight, they used radioactive decay to produce electrical power, rather than solar panels. Voyager 2 launched on August 1977 and the evidence it colleded “supported notions that Europa could support an ocean underneath its thick ice and that even aquatic life might exist