History+of+the+space+program+in+the+Soviet+Union-p7

> =History Of The Space Program In The Soviet Union= > By: Rosie

Sputnik 1 was the first satellite to be launched into the earth's orbit. It was secretly launched by the Soviet Union on October 4, 1957. Most people in the United States were shocked by this news! Suddenly, our cold war opponent could deliver destructive missles to anywhere in the world -- including the USA. Was //Sputnik// true? Did the USA space program have an even better secret space project? How had our communist enemies beat us into space?

The Space Program in the Soviet Union, like the US Space Program, was much simpler than the very technical and complex space programs to follow. The Soviets used stainless steel tubes about 4-feet in diameter powered by simple multiple kerosene and liquid oxygen engines.

Segei P. Korolev was the infamous lead Soviet designer. He was proud of the Soviet space program but often disagreed (secretly, of course) with his military bosses. His main goal was to explore space, maybe even via a permanent space lab orbiting around earth. Like the United States, some of the Soviet's best space minds were German World War II rocket scientists. But unlike the US, these new found rocket scientists continuously improved upon their technology because the Soviet Union was placed on high priority of the space race after World War II. Soviet space pioneers started with their own long range missles in the early 1950's. Soon this effort grew into intercontinental, or high orbit, missles -- the Sputnik program.

Many Soviet satellites were launched into space by the Soviet Union after //Sputnik//. Some of these were called, //Luna 1 (1959), Luna 2 (1959), Luna 3 (1959), Luna 9 (1966), Luna 16 (1970//), and //Luna 17// (1970). The Soviets also put the first group of astronauts in space together on the spacecrafts, //Vostok 3// and //Vostok 4// that were sent in 1962.

The Soviet people took great pride in their record making space program. The country was relatively poor. The space program showed good things could come out of their very secret military programs that used so much of thier country's money. On the other hand, Americans talked openly about who should have been leading their country to the new frontier of space. Some Americans were very angry, some were just scared of what the Soviets might do from so far away. The Soviet space program was great for thier nation.

//Sputnik// and the Soviet manned space craft grabbed American's attention. How could the leader of the free world not lead in space? The resulting space race between the United States and the Soviet Union began with President Kennedy's announcement that America would (from then on) be the leader in space and outlining a billion dollar space program, centered around NASA. As the US vaulted forward the Soviets struggled to fund thier dreams. Just as the Americans won World War II with their industrial might, they would someday better the Soviet space program. Indeed, in the 1980's after the fall of the USSR, the American and Soviet space programs would be combined in some efforts.

Source Citation:

- Clark Phillip, The Soviet Mannea Space Program. New York: Orion Books, 1988. - "Soviet Union Launches sputnik, October 4, 1957." Discovering World History. Online ed. Detroit:Gale, 2003. Student Resource Center- Gold. Thomson Gale. Cook Memorial Library. 2/5/07. http://find.galegroup.com/scrx/infomark.do?&contentSet=GSRC&type=retrieve&tab ID=T001&prodld=SRC-1&docld=EJ2105241465&source=gale&scrprod=SRCG&usergroupName=ccscm&version=1.0