Sparks Commentary: How did the Cold War lead to the Space Race?

“Poyekhali!” (“Let's go!”)

– Yuri Gagarin, the first man in space, at the moment of the Vostok 1 rocket launch that first sent him into space

An anecdote about the German rocket scientists, and whose sides they were on in the Cold War

At the end of World War II, it turned out that the best rocket scientists in the world were in Nazi Germany. As Nazis, these scientists had been using their skills to send V-2 rockets tearing into London (and other Allied cities). But after the war, they would be drafted into the rocket programs of their respective conquering nations, and end up using these rockets for more peaceful purposes. The lucky ones worked for the Western Allies, and particularly for the Americans. But some of them were in East Germany, and thus had to work for the Soviet Union instead (a somewhat harsher fate). For both sides, these German scientists would form the core of their future rocket programs, and thus participate in the Space Race on one side or the other of this coming conflict. The boundaries of the Cold War – which went through postwar Germany – thus decided which side they were on in this conflict, and many of them would rather have chosen the West if they'd been able to do so. The Space Race was thus destined to be an integral part of this coming Cold War.

Wernher von Braun, one of the most famous of the German rocket scientists (who was on the American side)

Sending animals up into the atmosphere (1947), and sending Sputnik into space (1957)

The United States was actually the first nation to send animals into the atmosphere (some would say into “space”). In 1947, they deliberately put fruit flies aboard a captured V-2 rocket during its launch, testing the effects of the radiation on them. In 1949, they sent a rhesus monkey into the atmosphere, but it actually died on impact after a parachute failure. The death rate among the monkeys sent at this time was alarmingly high – about two-thirds of those sent in the 1940's and 1950's died. In 1950, the United States sent a mouse into the atmosphere; and in 1951, the Soviet Union sent dogs into the atmosphere. But the world changed in 1957, when the Soviet Union sent an artificial satellite into space, which achieved actual orbit. It was, of course, the Sputnik; and it was a great moment in history, regardless of which side of the conflict that one sympathizes with. But this created the aptly-named “Sputnik crisis” in the United States, because it scared many Americans with the apparent technological superiority of the hated “Russians.” This was, of course, something of an embarrassment to America's then-President Dwight Eisenhower, whose administration thus tried to downplay the Soviet successes in space. But the Americans were behind, and they knew it. They were determined that they would not stay behind for long, though, and they thus focused their efforts on trying to accelerate their space program. A number of their rockets blew up on the launch pads, so the American entry into space was not getting off to a promising start at that time. But hopefully, they thought, their future efforts would be better.

Sputnik 1, the world's first artificial satellite

The military applications of using spy satellites in the Cold War

Sputnik was a huge symbolic moment, and told scientists a number of things about the atmosphere of the Earth. But it also had some military applications, because it opened the door to the later use of spy satellites (by both sides). This is the biggest military application of the Space Race at this time. The rocket technologies would also later be used to create Inter-Continental Ballistic Missiles (or “ICBM's”), but this is not technically a part of the Space Race. This is just an earthbound use of the similar technologies, albeit one that people feared would eventually be used to launch missiles at them from space. But the most important military application of the actual “Space Race” itself was the spy satellites. In their early days, they would actually eject canisters of film to the Earth via parachutes. But control over where they landed was not particularly good, so the retrieval of the film could sometimes involve complicated political risks. It was only later on, when the means were developed for the satellites to communicate with the Earth while still in space, that these complicated political risks were largely eliminated.

American satellite image of the Pentagon – Corona, 1967

An SM-65 Atlas, the first US ICBM, first launched in 1957

Yuri Gagarin becomes first man in space (1961), and Neil Armstrong walks on the moon (1969)

The next major victories in the Space Race were mainly propaganda victories, but were of vital importance nonetheless. In 1961, the Soviet Union sent a “cosmonaut” into space, the Russian equivalent of an “astronaut.” His name was Yuri Gagarin, and he was a national hero for them. At the moment that they launched the Vostok 1 rocket (the one that sent him into space), he said “Poyekhali!” (Russian for “Let's go!”). Thus, this phrase is now associated with the Space Race in the former Eastern Bloc countries. This victory also had some scientific importance, because it gave humanity some new knowledge about the ability of human beings to survive in space (among other things). But the other major propaganda victory was for the United States, when it landed two famous astronauts on the moon in 1969. The astronauts were Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, of course, and the words of Neil Armstrong at the moment that he walked there are among the most famous in history. (“That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”) Twelve years after Sputnik, the Americans had caught up to the Russians in space. I might also mention that the Space Race led to advances in computers, and particularly to the miniaturization of computers. In order to be portable, computers had to be small enough to fit inside of a spacecraft, something that had not yet been done before. Thus, there were a number of indirect benefits to the Space Race, which have not always been acknowledged in the public discussion of the subject.

Vostok 1 capsule on display at the RKK Energiya museum

Buzz Aldrin salutes United States flag on the lunar surface, 1969

Reagan and “Star Wars”: Missile defense system called “Strategic Defense Initiative”

Historians today debate about whether or not to include this next topic as a part of the Space Race. But in the interest of Cold War relevance, President Ronald Reagan launched the “Strategic Defense Initiative” in 1984. Both sides had possessed nuclear weapons by that point, but the purpose of the “Strategic Defense Initiative” was somewhat different from this. It actually attempted to find a way to stop nuclear missiles after they had been launched, something new at that time. It didn't work, as it turned out; but they had attempted to find a way to defend themselves against a nuclear attack. Since the proposed “missile defense system” required technology so advanced as to be unrealistic (and would have been required to work in space as well), critics actually dubbed the program “Star Wars,” after the 1977 science-fiction film by George Lucas. Reagan, incidentally, responded by saying: “The Force is with us” – a paraphrase of a line from the same film. This is a topic that I cover extensively in one of my other posts, so I will not attempt to duplicate that coverage here. But this program does seem to have fulfilled its primary purpose (which was to scare the Soviets), even if it did not develop an actual “missile defense system.”

Artist's conception of a proposed missile defense system for the “Strategic Defense Initiative,” 1984

A bipartisan plug for the funding of space programs in the future

But on a more bipartisan note, there is a need to fund future space programs, and to extend the frontiers of knowledge in the process. In the words of “Star Trek,” space is the “final frontier,” and beckons to us to explore it. There was actually collaboration between the Americans and the Soviets even during the Cold War, so the funding of the space programs can be a way of promoting international cooperation even among enemies. As we remember past accomplishments from our own space programs, let us think of what we can gain from further journeys into the unknown. Let us think of what we can give our children in the way of knowledge. And let us think of the aesthetic value in expanding the frontiers of knowledge further. It is a gift that we can give to future generations, which can be our generation's legacy. Perhaps they will even remember us fondly for it.

Buzz Aldrin on the moon, 1969

“We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too.”

– John F. Kennedy, in his “Address at Rice University” (12 September 1962)

Related movies:

"The Dish" (2000 movie)

"Apollo 13" (1995 movie)

"October Sky" (1999 movie)

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Reagan and “Star Wars”: Bringing the fall of the Wall and the end of the Cold War

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Part of a series about

The Cold War