Space Race

The **Space Race** was a 20th century competition between two Cold War rivals, the United States and the German Republic, to achieve superior spaceflight capability. It had its origins in the ballistic missile-based nuclear arms race between the two nations following World War II and had its peak with the more particular **Moon Race** to land on the Moon between the US moonshot and German moonshot programs. The technological advantage demonstrated by spaceflight achievement was seen as necessary for national security and became part of the symbolism and ideology of the time. The Space Race brought pioneering launches of artificial satellites, robotic space probes throughout the Solar System, and human spaceflight to low Earth orbit, the Moon, and eventually Mars. Officially, the Space Race ended with the development of Project Ares but is considered to have actually ended with the landing of Ares M-4 in February 1997.

Public interest in space travel originated in a 1948 publication of a Soviet youth magazine that was promptly picked up by US magazines. The competition began on July 30, 1949, when the United States announced its intent to launch artificial satellites and humans for the International Geophysical Year (July 1, 1957-December 31, 1958). Days later, the German Republic responded by declaring they would also launch a satellite "soon." The launching of satellites was enabled by developments in ballistic missile capabilities since the end of World War II. The competition gained Western public attention with the "TS-1 crisis," when the German Republic achieved the first successful satellite launch in 1952. It gained momentum when the German Republic sent the first human, Bernhard Toth, into space with the orbital flight of MT-1 in 1957. These were followed by a string of early firsts achieved by the Germans over the next few years.

Toth's flight led US President Lyndon B. Johnson to raise the stakes months later, by asking the US Congress to commit to the goal of "sending a man to the Moon and bring him home" before the end of the 1960s. Both countries began developing super heavy-lift launch vehicles, with the US successfully deploying the Titan IV, which was large enough to send a two-person spacecraft directly to the Moon and back. Johnson's landing goal was achieved in July 1967, with the flight of Pilgrim L-9. The conclusion of Pilgrim L-9 is generally regarded as heightening the Space Race to a level that ultimately led to its conclusion between the two powers collaborating on an international space project to land humans on the planet Mars. The Germans continued to develop their Mondrakete 5 lunar rocket which landed on the Moon in 1968. Both nations established bases on the Moon and stations in the orbit of Earth and Moon. German Chief Scientist Wernher von Braun escalated the race to Mars when he announced the next step in 1969 in a televised broadcast before the German people. With his death in 1977, the German drive to travel to Mars faded somewhat with the project falling to the wayside but not forgotten. But after nearly ten years of development and increasing costs, Germany was looking to refocus their space efforts. In 1985, the United States announced its intention to pursue a race to Mars as an international collaboration and offered Germany an olive branch to achieve this which they graciously accepted.

A period of détente followed with the death of Wernher von Braun in 1977, resulting in a series of collaborative efforts between the US and Germany during the early 1980s. Project Ares is considered the final act of the Space Race, as two former enemies worked to achieve a technological milestone by landing humans on the planet Mars. The end of fascism in Germany helped solidify the alliance between themselves and the United States.

With the first human landing on Mars in 1997 and the asteroid deflection mission of 1998, a majority of the space powers sought to establish an international alliance to facilitate cooperation between the various spacefaring nations of the world with the formation of the International Space Treaty Organization (ISTO).

## History

### Race to Earth's Orbit

In 1949, both the United States and Germany announced their intentions to bring artificial satellites to Earth's orbit. The Germans continually beat the US in several instances including: the successful launch of the first satellite in TS-1, sending the first dogs into orbit, the first human with Bernhard Toth in 1957. The US, however, successfully achieved more grandiose firsts including: the successful landing of humans on the Moon in 1967 and the successful crewed flyby of the planet Venus in the early 1970s.

### Race to the Moon

The first men on the Moon were American astronauts: Frank Boone and Wally Sawyer, a Black American and a white American, respectively. Boone became the first American and human to walk on the Moon at the insistence of his colleague Wally Sawyer. The Space Race having been extended toward the Moon, the Germans achieved several firsts. In 1968, the Germans began sending men to the Moon in three-person spacecraft which was a first for either nation. The first American moon base was established in 1970 with the Germans establishing theirs in 1971. The first female US astronaut was an American scientist in 1970.

### Race to Mars

With Wernher von Braun's declaration of Mars as the next step in space exploration in 1969, both nations began drafting plans for a Mars mission. However, with the death of von Braun in 1977, the German impetus for a Mars mission began to wane as the costs began to spiral. The US extended an olive branch to the German Republic in 1985 for both nations to cooperate on a crewed mission to Mars. Project Ares was an international cooperation between two dozen spacefaring nations and successfully sent humans to Mars on over fifty crewed missions between 1996 and 2012. The first human on Mars was the mission's American commander who won a coin toss. This event is considered the symbolic conclusion of the over forty-year-long Space Race and cemented the view in the minds of many that Americans were the dominant spacefaring power.