Space+Race

For over a decade, the United States and the Soviet Union were engaged in a heated competition—the space race. The space race began in 1957 when the Soviet Union launched the first artificial satellite, Sputnik. The Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev and the American presidents Dwight Eisenhower, John Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon all agreed that conquering outer space was very important. Both countries wanted to win—to prove their scientific superiority and to show their military strength. 1. US President John Kennedy spent a lot of money on it and gave them permission to do it. 2. John Glenn was the 1st American to orbit around the Earth. It all happened on February 20th. He went around the Earth 3 times. 3. Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin were the 1st people to walk on the moon. Right before they left they stuck a American flag in the moon. They went in the Apollo Pl Lunar model.

Important Places The moon is the most important places because that’s were they raced to. They send a lot of satellite and other tools to space and it will come back with information. Before Armstrong and Aldrin left they planted an American flag. The International Space Station crew research base is being built in orbit. It is a project between the US, Canada, and Europe, plus many other contributors. The ISS orbits about 220 miles above Earth. Karman Line is the boundary between air and space, named after Hungarian-American physicist Theodore Von Karman. He first worked out that at 62 mph up the air is too think for an aircraft to fly. The height is accepted by the Federation Aeronautique International, which sets such rules and standards

Other Important
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They used animals to test rocket ships out before people. They sent a monkey and a dog in space so far. Once they were safe they sent people up. In 2004 spaceship one makes its first flight in June. U.S. designer Burt Rutan created a two-craft system that includes the White Knight carrier plane. This takes SSI high in to the air ,before it is dropped and the rocket motor is switched to on. In Soviet Soyuz is launched, carrying Vladimir Komarow .It returns to earth on April 24th but he was killed in the crash. He was the 1st person to die on a space mission. In 1959 the first flight of the X-15 rocket plane. Three are built and made 199 flights between them until 1968, although one is lost in a accident. The highest flight reached was almost 67 miles with Joe Walker at the controls. The space race was a competition with Russia and the U.S.A. Soviet Premiar Khrushchev wanted to show that communist technolgy was superior. President Kennedy wanted to beat the Soviet to the moon.

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