Oklahomans and Space

History of Space Exploration

Background

Space exploration began in the 1950s during the Cold War. During this time, the United States and Russia (then part of the Soviet Union) competed against each other. They both wanted to be perceived as the most powerful country in the world and were developing increasingly stronger weapons. At the time, many Americans were afraid that the Soviets would attack the United States with these weapons, but this never came to pass.

The US and the Soviet Union also competed to develop better technology, including space exploration technology. This competition became known as the “space race.” In 1957, the Soviet Union launched the first man-made satellite into Earth’s orbit, called Sputnik. They would also launch the first human, Yuri Gagarin, into space. American politicians and scientists saw this as a crisis because they thought it meant that the Soviets might win the space race. The US government decided to commit more funds to space exploration. In 1958, the government created the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, or NASA, an independent agency of the federal government responsible for American space exploration, as well as aeronautics and space research.

Eventually, the United States and the Soviet Union decided it would be beneficial if they worked together to explore space. This cooperation was a step towards the end of the Cold War and led to the world’s growing collective knowledge of space and space program development across the globe. When the Soviet Union dissolved into several countries in 1991, its space program mainly passed to Russia. The US and Russia would continue to work together through space shuttle and space station collaboration programs, as well as the later construction and development of the International Space Station.

History of NASA

Soon after its creation, NASA planned to conduct human spaceflight. In 1961, Alan B. Shepard Jr. became the first American in space. John Glenn Jr. was the first US astronaut to orbit the Earth in 1962, and Edward H. White Jr. was the first US astronaut to conduct a spacewalk. In 1961, President John F. Kennedy announced that the United States would land a man on the Moon by the end of the decade. NASA established the Apollo program with the goal of fulfilling this mission. The Apollo program was one of the largest non-military technological projects established by the United States government.

Neil Armstrong became the first human to walk on the Moon on July 20, 1969. While taking his first step onto the Moon’s surface, Armstrong made one of the most famous statements in history: “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”

In 1975, for the first time, Americans and Soviets worked together in space. American Apollo astronauts and Soviet Soyuz cosmonauts each launched from their own countries and met in space. This marked the end of the space race and was a major step towards ending the Cold War.

In 1973, NASA launched its first space station, known as Skylab. In 1981, the space shuttle became the first reusable spacecraft launched. In 1998, the American, Russian, Japanese, European, and Canadian space programs worked together to build the International Space Station, or ISS. The purpose of the ISS is to experiment with long-term stays in space with the hope of exploring the possibility of humans living permanently in space. Astronauts started living on the ISS in 2000, and the station is expected to operate through the year 2030. More than 200 people from 20 countries have visited the ISS, making it one of the largest signifiers of international technological cooperation both in—and above–the world.

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