Clive Gifford - The Race to Space: From Sputnik to the Moon Landing and Beyond...

A race to be the first into space began in the 1950s between the two most powerful nations at the timethe United States and the Soviet Union. The rivalry was far from friendly and the competition was intense. Both sides used knowledge gathered during World War II to power their own space programs. This book tells the story of this rivalry and the brave voyages of discovery made by astronauts and cosmonauts as both sides battled for supremacy in space.

ROCKET ROBERT

Robert Goddard (1882-1945) pioneered many of the technologies and theories required for sending rockets into space. Many thought his ideas were far-fetched, but Goddard persisted and built gunpowder rockets as well as developing key theories for rocket flight. In 1926, he launched the first ever rocket powered by liquid fuel. It landed in his aunts cabbage patch but paved the way for future rocket science.

The dream of yesterday is the hope of today and the reality of tomorrow.

ROBERT GODDARD

W hen World War II ended, in 1945, the United States and Soviet Union found themselves the worlds two most powerful nations. They fought on the same side during the war, but it had been an uneasy alliance. The two nations had very different views on how to run a country. The Soviet Union was communist, with just one political party and with the state in control of all industries. It wanted to spread communism across the globe, and after the war it introduced communist governments in other countries, particularly in Eastern Europe. Alarmed at this, the United States formed a military alliance with countries in western Europe, called NATO. The USA also offered help to countries or groups who were standing up against communism. The Soviet Union formed its own communist alliance (the Warsaw Pact), and Europe found itself divided in two.

COLD WAR

A period of tension, hostility, and competition between the superpowers followed. This conflict is now known as the Cold War. It was labeled cold as the two sides never declared physical war on each other. Instead, both sides tried to influence events in other parts of the world. This often meant sending troops, weapons, or aid to a particular side in a regional war. They also competed in other ways, such as building large spy networks for gaining secret information, and starting a massive arms race to see who could build the deadliest weapons.

NUCLEAR POWER

The United States was the first country to develop nuclear weapons, and they detonated two devastating atomic bombs in Japan, bringing about the end of World War II. But the Soviets were not far behind. In 1949, they tested their own atomic bomb. With each superpower fearing the other, both built up frighteningly large stores of nuclear weapons. One of the main goals of each country was to find out how to fire these weapons over long distances. To achieve this, they turned to rocket experts for help.

An iron curtain has descended across the continent.

BRITISH POLITICIAN WINSTON CHURCHILL, 1946

ROCKET MEN

T housands of engineers and scientists in the Soviet Union and the United States worked on missiles during the 1940s and 50s. Each side tried to make them travel faster, farther, and more accurately. Two of these engineers would become world-famous, not as missile makers, but for pioneering the peaceful exploration of space. These gifted rocket men were Wernher von Braun in the USA and Sergei Korolev in the Soviet Union.

SERGEI PAVLOVICH KOROLEV

Born in Ukraine in 1907, young Sergei became hooked on flying at the age of six, when he saw an aerobatics pilot perform spins and tricks. Sergei soon learned to fly gliders and started designing his own aircraft at the age of 17. When he began studying at a technical school in Moscow, Russia, one of his teachers was the great plane designer Sergei Tupolev.

By 1933, Korolev was the chief designer of a group of young rocket engineers known as GIRD. He led the team to launch the countrys first liquid-fueled rocket. It only traveled 80 metres into the air, but it was enough to start dreaming about space travel. The countrys military became interested and Korolev was offered a job at the Jet Propulsion Research Institute.

The late 1930s was a dangerous time in the Soviet Union. Its leader, Joseph Stalin, had thousands of Soviet politicians, generals, scientists, and engineers tortured and imprisoned. Korolev was one of the victims. He was sentenced to death, then forced to work at a brutal prison camp called a gulag. Korolev suffered beatings and nearly died, before being ordered to return to work on rockets. He wasnt freed until 1944, but after World War II ended, he was put in charge of OKB-1a Soviet team tasked with building long-range rocket weapons.

Soviet rockets must conquer space!

SERGEI KOROLEV, 1933