The Race to Space

Paper Summary:

This paper begins with a brief look at the history of the relationship between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. It then discusses the roots of rocketry and the birth of modern rocket science. A discussion of the race between the two nations to put a human being into space during the 1960s follows.

From the Paper:

"The contest for space explodes into life within the saber rattling environment of the nuclear age. Near the end of the 1950s, the cold war had escalated to frightening proportions. Both countries maintained enormous stockpiles of nuclear and conventional weapons. The United States developed its deterrence based on long-range bombers. By 1955 the US Air Force had ?580 B52s, and 1500 B-47s,?(NASA) all 2080 aircraft capable of delivering nuclear weapons. In 1955, the United States Navy launched the world's first nuclear submarine. By 1960, the US had over 18,000 nuclear weapons in its arsenal, and developed the liquid fueled Atlas and Titan Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBM)."

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• Research Paper # 4651 : "Space Race as Propaganda During the Cold War"

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