In 1957 the Space Race began between US and Soviet Union. On Oct 4th 1957 Russia launched the Sputnik satellite. Sputnik traveled around the earth at 18000 miles per hour, and circled the glob every 96 mins. It provided the first opportunity to detect meteoroid. On November 3, Sputnik II was launched, carrying a much heavier payload, than Sputnik I , including a dog named Laika.
Americans were shocked at the triumph of the Soviet Union. US scientists started working to catch up to the Soviets. The first attempt at the satellite launch failed resulting in the rocket falling to the ground. On January 31, 1958, the United States successfully launched Explorer I. This satellite discovered the magnetic radiation belts around the Earth.
On April 12th 1961, Soviets launched the first astronaut Yuri. A. Gagarin and he became the first person in space. In America NASA had begun new setup and launch facilities. As a result of this Space Program US was able to beat the Soviets to the moon, on July 20th 1969 Neil Armstrong was the first man on the moon.
4 comments:
Great job explaining the space phenomenon and the competition between the Soviet Union and the US. Maybe you could have included some background about the tension during this time period between the US and Soviet Union(The Cold War) and how that made the level of competition rise.
This is a nice article on the Space Race, telling the accomplishments and feelings. I love the pictures, but you could have written more i.e. background.
I liked the information on the Cold War and how it impacted the space program. I think that you probably should have wrote a little bit more but the pictures are really cool.
There was a lot of good information but the posting was mostly names and dates. It was a little bit choppy but got the information across.
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