The impact of Space Race on the societys of USA and USSR

THE IMPACT OF SPACE RACE ON THE SOCIETYS OF USA AND USSR

Introduction

The first satellite which was made by the USSR was launched in 1957 on 4th October and was known as Sputnik . Its weight was around 184 pounds which was slightly bigger than a basketball . No scientific equipments were present in Sputnik but it orbited the earth singularly in 98 minutes (Garber , 2007 . It had one radio transmitter and the beeping noise it incessantly produced made it easy for it to be tracked by instruments that were quite primitive . The

relevance of Sputnik as a data gathering instrument was insignificant . However , Sputnik ushered in a new era of exploring the space opening a battle ground between the USA and USSR . The space race promoted the creation of space shuttles which were manned and space stations to monitor the progress in space exploration (Divine 1993 ,

. 35 . Space race , as it later came to be known has had various effects on the society

The Impact of Space Race on the Society 's of USA and USSR

The USA and USSR were bitter rivals after the Second World War even after they had allied to defeat Germany . This was as a result of their different political ideologies that they wanted to spread in other parts of the world . This war was referred to as the Cold War and it involved a lot of espionage . USSR hoped to win most of the Third World countries and Asia to spread communism and...