# The space race: rivalry, rendezvous, and spying

The two-sided contest that opened the space age: the Soviet firsts, Sputnik, Gagarin, the first spacewalk and space station, that shocked America into founding NASA and racing to the Moon, the handshakes in orbit at Apollo-Soyuz and the ISS, and the spy war beneath it, rockets that were also nuclear missiles and the Corona satellites.

*This story parallel: The bomb spreads*
*This story parallel: NASA and the space age*
*This story parallel: Covert operations, coups, and blowback*
*This story part of: The Cold War*
*This story parallel: The Nazi bargains: Paperclip and the recruitment of the enemy*

## 1956 — The U-2 spy plane overflies the Soviet Union

The CIA flies the high-altitude U-2 spy plane over the USSR to photograph its missile and bomber bases, until one is shot down in 1960 and pilot Gary Powers captured. Spying on the enemy's rockets was the hidden purpose behind much of the space effort.

## 4 October 1957 — Sputnik 1, the first satellite

The Soviet Union launches Sputnik 1, the first artificial satellite, stunning the world and the United States. The beep from orbit opened the space age and the space race in a single night.

## November 1957 — Laika, the first creature in orbit

The Soviet Union sends the dog Laika into orbit aboard Sputnik 2, the first living being to circle the earth, though she did not survive. It showed the Soviets were racing toward putting a human in space.

## c. 1957 — Every space rocket is also a nuclear missile

The R-7 that launched Sputnik was designed as an intercontinental ballistic missile, and America's space boosters were likewise weapons. The space race was inseparable from the nuclear arms race: the same rockets could carry a satellite or a warhead.

## July 1958 — The Sputnik shock spurs the creation of NASA

Alarmed that the Soviets had reached space first, the United States founds NASA and pours money into science education and rocketry. The American space program was born from the fear of falling behind.

## 13 September 1959 — Luna 2 reaches the Moon

The Soviet probe Luna 2 became the first spacecraft to reach the surface of another world when it struck the Moon. It marked another Soviet lead in the early space race.

## 1960 — Corona: the space race's secret twin, the spy satellite

The United States begins the top-secret Corona program, the first spy satellites, which photographed the Soviet Union from orbit and were not declassified until 1995. Behind the public race to the Moon ran a hidden race to watch the enemy from space.

## 12 April 1961 — Gagarin becomes the first human in space

The Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin orbits the earth aboard Vostok 1, the first human being in space. The triumph shocked America into committing to land a man on the Moon.

## 25 May 1961 — Kennedy pledges to land a man on the Moon

Weeks after Gagarin's flight, President Kennedy commits the United States to landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely before the decade is out. It set the goal that would win the space race.

## October 1962 — Spy-plane photos trigger the Cuban Missile Crisis

U-2 reconnaissance photographs reveal Soviet nuclear missiles being installed in Cuba, setting off the most dangerous crisis of the Cold War. The eye in the sky that grew from the space program brought the world to the brink of nuclear war.

## June 1963 — Tereshkova, the first woman in space

The Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova becomes the first woman in space, twenty years before the United States flew a woman. The Soviets used their space firsts as proof of the promise of communism.

## March 1965 — Leonov takes the first spacewalk

The Soviet cosmonaut Alexei Leonov leaves his capsule for the first walk in space, another Soviet first. The two superpowers traded milestones as the race toward the Moon accelerated.

## July 1969 — The N1 rocket fails and the Soviet Moon dream dies

The giant Soviet N1 Moon rocket fails repeatedly, and after the death of chief designer Korolev the Soviet manned lunar program quietly collapses. The failure of the N1 is why the United States, not the USSR, reached the Moon.

## 20 July 1969 — The Nazi rocketeer's rocket reaches the Moon

Apollo 11 lands on the Moon atop von Braun's Saturn V, the culmination of a career that began with Hitler's missiles. One of the twentieth century's greatest achievements rested on one of its darkest bargains.

*Source: Project Paperclip and American Rocketry after World War II*

## April 1971 — Salyut 1, the first space station

The Soviet Union launches Salyut 1, the first space station, shifting the contest from the Moon to long-duration life in orbit. The USSR would lead in space stations for decades, culminating in Mir.

## July 1975 — Apollo-Soyuz: the rivals shake hands in orbit

American and Soviet spacecraft dock in orbit and their crews shake hands, the first joint mission of the two rivals. The Apollo-Soyuz handshake was the space chapter of Cold War detente.

## November 1998 — Russia and America build the space station together

The old rivals join to build the International Space Station, with Russian and American modules linked in orbit. The programs born as Cold War weapons became a symbol of post-Cold-War cooperation.

## 2011 — America rides Russian rockets after the Shuttle

When NASA retires the Space Shuttle, the United States depends for nearly a decade on Russian Soyuz rockets to reach the station it helped build. The nation that won the Moon race had to buy seats from its old rival.