The U.S.-Soviet space race: three competitions set the aerospace landscape; a "prisoner of war" helped the U.S. turn defeat into victory

"The earth is the cradle of mankind, but mankind cannot be bound to the cradle forever." This is the famous saying of Tsiolkovsky, the founder of modern astronautics and the father of human spaceflight. This outstanding scientist from the former Soviet Union first theoretically demonstrated the possibility of human beings flying out of the earth. When the speed of an object (ignoring air resistance) reaches the first cosmic speed of 7.9 kilometers per second, it can orbit the earth without falling back to the ground.

Now that humans had the theoretical basis, the next step was to actually develop a rocket that could break free from the constraints of the earth. It was the German expert von Braun who came up with it.

At the end of World War II, the fascist Germany led by Hitler was already defeated. In order to reverse the situation, he ordered the development of a new weapon - the V2 missile. This weapon can continuously burn fuel in flight to continuously accelerate itself, and its flight distance is far different from that of bullets and artillery shells. The V2 missile is the predecessor of the rocket.

At that time, von Braun was an outstanding rocket expert in Germany. After several setbacks, his team finally developed the V2 missile. Although the V2 missile caused a certain degree of damage to the Allies, the balance of victory still leaned towards the righteous anti-fascist alliance.

Soon after, Berlin fell and Germany was defeated. The United States and the Soviet Union, which had invaded Berlin, "divided" the missile research talents and important instruments and equipment. Von Braun was "robbed" by the United States. In the years that followed, this founder of rocket technology made great contributions to the United States' space industry.

After the end of World War II, mankind did not usher in true peace, but fell into a nearly half-century cold war. In order to prove that their ideologies and social systems were superior to each other, the "leaders" of the two major camps of the East and the West, the United States and the Soviet Union, began to compete in military and political fields. The aerospace field was the top priority for both sides, and both sides fought back and forth without showing any weakness.

In the first round, the main focus is on who can launch "something" out of the earth and into space first.

On October 4, 1957, the Soviet Union launched Sputnik 1, the first artificial satellite made of two hemispherical aluminum shells docked, into space using a carrier rocket modified from an R7 intercontinental missile at the Baikonur launch site. Humanity officially entered the space age.

The Soviet Union won the first battle.

In the second round, the main focus will be on who can send people into space first.

On April 12, 1961, Gagarin successfully entered space on the Vostok 1 spacecraft and completed a circle around the earth in 1 hour and 48 minutes at an apogee of 301 kilometers. Gagarin became the first astronaut.

In the second confrontation, the Soviet Union won again.

In the third round, the difficulty increased significantly. Let's see who can set foot on the moon first and achieve manned lunar landing.

The United States, which lost the first two games, was furious and launched a massive manned lunar landing project, the Apollo Project, in 1961. More than 200 universities and 80 scientific research institutions, with more than 300,000 researchers, participated in the project. NASA strived to send astronauts to the moon within ten years.

The Soviet Union followed closely and started the moon landing project a year later. The Soviet Union took the lead in launching several lunar probes named "Luna" such as Luna 1.

But then, due to internal problems such as power struggles among leaders, the Soviet Union suffered several setbacks in space exploration. Their development of the high-thrust N1 rocket encountered many accidents. The Soviets became more and more eager for quick success.

On the other hand, in the United States, the moon landing auxiliary programs such as "Ranger", "Prospector", "Lunar Orbiter" and "Gemini" were advanced step by step in an orderly manner.

On July 20, 1969, during the Apollo 11 mission, Armstrong finally set foot on the moon, becoming the first man to land on the moon. More than 500 million television viewers around the world witnessed him slowly walk down the steps of the lunar module and utter the famous words that will be remembered forever: "This is a small step for man, but a giant leap for mankind!"

In the third confrontation, the United States finally turned the tables and achieved a great victory in manned lunar landing.

Why did the United States make a great comeback in the third game after losing the first two games? One of the important reasons is the Rockets!

One of the biggest contributors to the success of the Apollo program was the Saturn V rocket. This high-thrust rocket is 110 meters high, 10 meters in diameter, and has a total thrust of 3,408 tons, making it the largest rocket to date. The most valuable thing is that all of its launches were successful. The designer of this perfect rocket was none other than von Braun, who was brought to the United States by the U.S. military when Germany was defeated in the war.

After the third round, the United States and the Soviet Union diverged in terms of technology. The United States focused on researching reusable means of transportation that could travel back and forth between the earth and space many times - the space shuttle. The Soviet Union focused on building a space station that could operate for a long time and provide work and life for multiple astronauts. Although the two superpowers had different research directions, their cooperation gradually increased...

Indeed, only when all mankind puts aside their differences and works together, will we be able to go further and further on this long starry road!

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