The Space Race

The Space Race was a competition between the Soviet Union & the United States. It lasted roughly from 1957 to 1975.It involved the efforts to explore outer space with satellites, to send humans into space, and to land people on the Moon. The Space Race began after the Soviet launch of Sputnik 1 on 4 October 1957. Sputnik 1 was the size of a large beach ball & weighed more than 80 kg and orbited the Earth for more than two months. Nearly four months after the launch of Sputnik 1, the United States launched its first satellite, Explorer 1. In the meantime, several embarrassing launch failures had occurred at Cape Canaveral.