On this episode of Our Island Universe: The space race is on and NASA accepts the challenge. It was a decade of incredible growth and discovery.
Note: Throughout the month of July, Our Island Universe is celebrating the legacy of the Apollo 11 mission to the moon.
Shanil Virani, Director of the John C. Wells Planetarium in Harrisonburg, VA.
Follow on Twitter as shanilv
Transcript:
Nearly 4 years after Sputnik, on April 12, 1961, the Soviet Union’s Yuri Gagarin became the first human to leave the surface of our planet and travel into space. His Vostok 1 completed an orbit of Earth. In accomplishing this feat, he became an international celebrity, and was awarded many medals and titles, including the Soviet Union’s highest honor — Hero of the Soviet Union. The Soviets not only launched the first artificial satellite, they now also launched the first human into space.
Unlike with Sputnik, however, Americans were not caught off guard. Project Mercury, created in 1959 in response to Sputnik, had as its goal to put the first human into Earth orbit and return him safely, ideally before the Soviet Union. Alan Shepherd, the first American in space when his Freedom 7 launched just 3 weeks after Gagarin’s flight, is said to have been frustrated that America did not win that race. He thought NASA was being overly cautious. John Glenn became the first American to orbit the Earth just 10 months after Gagarin’s mission.
The Soviets may have been there first to space, but the investments in science and engineering by the United States meant we were quickly closing in on them. The question now became who would be first to the Moon.
