At the beginning of this war, a space race to prove technical superiority was taking place …show more content…
During the month of April, Soviet astronaut
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1. "Cold War." History.com. Accessed March 16, 2016. http://www.history.com/topics/spacerace.
2. "The Cold War Museum." Cold War Museum. Accessed March 16, 2016. http:// www.coldwar.org/articles/60s/index.asp. 1
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Yuri Gagarin became the first person to orbit the earth. Gagarin orbited the earth in the Vostok I, a small capsule-like space ship. Just one month later, American astronaut Allan Shepherd became the first American in space. Throughout this time other maned and non maned probes were being sent into space one after the other. During May of 1961, President John F. Kennedy made a bold announcement that the U.S. would have a man on the moon by the end of the decade. This bold claim was famously fulfilled on July 16, 1969. American astronaut Neil Armstrong became the first man to walk on the moon. This massive achievement effectively made America “win” the space race that began in 1957 with the launch of Sputnik. In the midst of the Cold War, this victory, for America, gave hope to the citizens. Now astronauts were seen as the true American hero and everyone knew about this interstellar victory. However winning the space race did