Firstly the main goal of the American government was to land on the moon before Russia did. This was to do the with whole arms race that was going on throughout the “Cold War”. The American public strongly believed that once man had landed on the moon, they would start to build colonies up there. While the public were dreaming of dome houses and moon cities the U.S military had other ideas. Project Horizon was the plan to establish a military base on the moon, one with minimal personnel required to function.
On the 4th of October 1957, Sputnik 1 launched into orbit, the first man-made satellite. This satellite was controlled by the Soviets. Although this spread joy and pride throughout the Soviet Union, countries such as the United States and the United Kingdom became fearful of the device orbiting the Earth. This became a constant fear for political leaders during the Cold War. Before, the Space Race was nothing more than a competition to decide whether capitalism or communism was a more superior
They could be launched from specially modified ships for shore bombardment or from the ground on launching rails. Experimenters and scientists in Germany and Russia began working with rockets with a mass of more than 45 kilograms. Some of these were so powerful that their escaping exhaust flames bored deep holes in the ground even before lift-off. So William Congreve wanted to become a competitor to the two German and Russian scientists. Even with Congreve's work, scientists had not improved the accuracy of rockets much from the early days of the solid fuel rockets.
Soviet and America left out with much less interest. They both were more focus on the “Space Race” try to send the first man on the Moon to assert their dominant and technological leader (4). The cost was so great that the companies and governments between those countries Britain and France decided to join forces. . A draft treaty was signed on November 28, 1962 (5).
Historical Landmarks – The 1969 Moon Landings The 1969 Moon Landings introduce controversial debate as to whether their significance adopted a landmark status. The culmination of expenditure, years of research and vast planning led to the successful mission in sending man to the moon in July 1969. The Moon Landings were a product of the notorious Cold War due to the commencement of the Space Race between the Soviet Union and America which was initiated with the Soviet launch of Sputnik in 1957 as well as Yuri Gagarin being the first man in space in 1961. The American space race success The leap for Aldrin and Armstrong into the eyes of the media and the public’s attention began with the estimated 600 million watching the Moon Landings live worldwide. The Moon Landings introduce landmark controversy through political, social, environmental, scientific and exploration factors.
Kennedy asked how many American causality’s there would be if one of the Soviet Union’s missiles would go off in the United States. The response to his question was around 500,000 (found in the interview). JFK realized the damage that a nuclear war could cause. He believed that if America went to war with the Soviet Union and won, it would be a pointless victory due to all the causality’s. JFK did what he could to ease the tension between the two nations.
This stimulated the arms race and creating a resilient competitive atmosphere between the world powers. In result obviously the damages of the consequences would be greater than of the atomic bomb more, therefore this placed the world in a dangerous position. For the super powers the arms race was a perfect chance to demonstrate their advancement in terms of economy, the side with the most extensive resource, or most powerful weapons was the stronger, therefore the most appealing. This opportunity however posed a great threat to world security as in 1949, the US nuclear monopoly was ended by the Soviets, who tested their own atomic bomb. Followed by an even more destructive weapon; the lithium bomb exploded by the soviets in 1953.
In his definition of Global History Mazlish talks about how globalization resulted in advanced science. How it wasn’t a single civilization that sent rockets into space but a collection of nations combined efforts that allowed for this to be possible (3). German, Russian, and American scientists were all critical in development of space technology. During World War Two the Germans developed extremely advanced rocket technology, later the Russians were able to adapt this to send the first satellite into space and then finally the Americans were able to add upon all of this to send men to the moon. This Mazlish would describe as falling into the realm of Global History because of the way it was humanity's effort that got us to the moon, not solely the ambition and technology of one civilization that got us there.
The Skylab Space Station was launched May 14, 1973, from the NASA Kennedy Space Center by the colossal Saturn V launch vehicle (the moon rocket of the Apollo Space Program). Sixty-three seconds after liftoff of the Space Station, the shield designed to protect it from meteoroids also to shade Skylab's workshop—moved without any intent. The shield was torn from the space station because of atmospheric drag. This event led to a ten-day period where Skylab has many problems that had to be taken care of before the space station would be safe for future missions. The Skylab Space Station was launched into orbit on May 14, 1973 as part of the Apollo program.
(Rodreyer, Smith) The creation of the bomb was considered by many scientists during the 1930’s and 1940’s. Mainly because It was thought that another force would be creating a mass destructive device similar to what the scientists had in mind. This whole project took a course of several years and much dedication. This project is known as, “The Manhattan Project.” The Manhattan Project was the code name for the U.S. creation of the atomic bomb during World War Two. An atomic bomb is a powerful explosive weapon that derives its force from the sudden release of energy in a nuclear reaction called fission, or splitting, of the nuclei of such heavy elements as plutonium and uranium.