U.S. Technology: History

Lesson 7: Aviation and Military Technology

The Space Race

The space race was a product of the Military-Industrial-Academic complex and the Cold War. In many ways, it was a spin off from the research that came out of the Military-Industrial-Academic complex; it was also a weapon in the Cold War. The great hope of the space race was that winning would prove the United States was technologically superior to the Soviet Union. Beating the Soviet Union into the farthest reaches of space seemed as important as beating them at nuclear technology.

A rocket that receives its motive power from an explosion is a very old technology, dating back to the Chinese as far back as 1200 AD. However, the idea of building rockets that were powerful enough to travel beyond the atmosphere was a 20th Century obsession. This obsession grew during the Cold War with both the United States and Soviet Union determined to top each other in the race to space!

This race truly gained momentum in 1955 when a group of scientists in America convinced President Eisenhower that a good deal of international prestige could be earned if the United States was able to launch an artificial satellite into space by the Geophysical Year 1957-58. A blue-ribbon panel was given the task of choosing the launching rocket and designing the capsule of the satellite. Unfortunately, a lot of time was lost in picking this panel, as each branch of the Armed Services politicked for its own version of the committee. In the meantime, the Soviet Union beat the United States into space by sending up Sputnik I.

This set the United States in a tailspin, and now the race was not so much to get a satellite into space; it was to get a man into space. Once again, the Soviet Union beat the United States in this race too. Yuri Gagarin completed a full orbit around the Earth for the Soviet Union a full year before John Glenn did for the United States.

The nation was embarrassed and it became a matter of pride to do something in the space race BEFORE the Soviet Union did. President Kennedy who promised to see a man on the Moon by the end of the 1960’s. There was no real scientific reason given for this goal; it was a matter of pride.

Unfortunately John Kennedy was killed before his promise was fulfilled, but it was fulfilled, and before the Soviet Union. On July 20, 1969, millions of people all over the World watched as Neil Armstrong and Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin planted an American flag on the Moon stating that they had taken “one small step for a man, one giant leap for Mankind.”

Points to Ponder:

1) What was the most important thing to come out of aviation in World War II?

2) What is the importance of the Military-Industrial-Academic Complex?

3) What was the most important goal in the space race?

Bibliography Cowan, Ruth Schwartz. “A Social History of American Technology.” Pages 249-271. Oxford University Press (1997)