“That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind,” (Armstrong, 1969), the final words of declaring the win the space race. The space race was an interesting part of the human race history, demonstrating our abilities to push ourselves past the limits on Earth. Little do we know the space evolved from the hatred of war to the connections and relationships to get to the stars. To push human efforts beyond of home planet into the brightly, lit night sky. From the Cold War between the US and the Soviet Union, it slowly transitioned into the Space Race, who could demonstrate that they were more advance in their sciences and in their government. The space race was a way to establish dominance in global power, getting a man into space was the ultimate goal. The Space Race affected America by creating new, advanced technology we have today, creating friendly foreign affairs with competing nations and proving the US was the most developed /leading nation in the world.

From the end of WWII, the US and the Soviet Union emerged as world powers and as enemies, from the beginning of the Cold War to the end of the Space Race. Sputnik––the first man-made satellite, made by the Soviet Union––demonstrated to the world that the Soviets had advanced technology and sparked the space race. This made the US look less of a world power because the US was not advanced enough to get their own satellite to space at the time, the idea of getting a man to space would outdo the Soviets. This began the race to space. As for the Americans, severely behind in technology, the best scientists were brought together to create new technology that can be used in space (military use) and eventually for the public use. The US spent millions of dollars to create NASA, the American space program. Without the space race, NASA would not have been created. It received huge amounts of funding and political attention to help push a man into space. As the space race continued, it brought more tension to the Cold

War. Because the Cold War and the Space Race took place at the same time, they influenced each other’s outcomes. With the help of President Eisenhower and late John F. Kennedy, they grabbed the attention of millions of Americans to not be discouraged by the Soviet Union but as to be more motivated to beat them to space and eventually walk on the moon. Tension began to grow more as the Americans were beginning to take the lead after the Soviets in space technology. The Americans benefited from having more funding and having science committees specialized in certain areas. Mathematicians, physicists, astronomers, rocket scientists and political support were helping NASA’s programs become more developed. Although the Soviet Union was the first to get a man in space, the US soon followed and got its first American to space. To the US, the ultimate prize to winning the space race was to be the first on the moon. On July 20, 1969, the US Apollo 11 mission was a successful lunar landing for mankind, demonstrating the power and strength of the American people to the rest of the world. This devastated the Soviet Union, as the US was able to beat them to the moon, the Soviets lacked the technology and political power to reach it. After the Space Race slowly came to an end, other countries began their own space programs due to the influence and success of the US. The significance of the Space Race was being able to prove to the rest of the world that the US was an important world power, especially a successful government and that many important scientific breakthroughs were created. Without the Space Race, we would today have our current foreign relations, technology and our leading nation to this day.

The advances in technology have helped us reach us reach the stars and more. With the collaboration between many great scientists has helped improve current and created new technology. Sputnik, the first manmade satellite to ever be put into orbit around our planet by the Soviet Union, to the US this was a sign of lacking in technology (Taylor, 2014). In order to beat

the Soviets in the Space Race, America had to create NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration). This allowed the Americans to develop technology such as satellites, wireless utilities and powerful rockets (Taylor, 2014). NASA was a stable ground into getting ahead of the Soviets in technology; JPL (Jet Propulsion Laboratory) which is also part of NASA specialized in rockets hence the name (National Aeronautics and Space Administration, 2000). Creating and placing satellites into orbit helped increase our knowledge by being able to to predict the weather, increased communications and mapping our planet. With the help of satellites, we can now use GPS and more accurate maps like google maps (Herbert, 2014). Satellites also proved to be a weapon, acting as spies in the skies moving stealthy by photographing from space since they orbited the Earth as such high speeds (Chaddha, 2007). Developing rockets and spacecraft to get to the moon was a large scale process, with the help of NASA special committees were created to specialize certain parts of the mission. This increased the chances of the Americans into beating the Soviet Union.

With the help of president Eisenhower and John F. Kennedy, they recognized the importance of science and technology, directed funding and support from the public to develop more space research ( Herbert, 2014). The National Defense Education Act was to loan $800 million to college students and states to improve sciences to help benefit the Space Race

( Getchell, 2014). This demonstrated the ambition of the US and its people to be the first on the moon. Besides creating technology to orbit the Earth, space probes were also crafted to explore regions of space that have not been touched or seen by man. NASA had sent probes to other planets, Venus and Mars, Viking (the Mars satellite) landed on the martian surface, demonstrating the technological advances of reaching other planets (The Space Age, 2017). Later on satellites were developed to hopefully conduct research on other distant planet like Neptune

and Pluto. Spacecraft technology was the new goal to develop in order to excel in space and to beat the Soviet Union in the Space Race. To design technology that will operate in space was the goal of winning the space race because that would conclude that nation is advanced in their learning and skills to operate in a place no man has ever been before.

Not only did the Space Race create newer technology it also changed the foreign relationship along with its competitor, the Soviet Union, and other nations. Because of the Cold War, the Space race was another part of creating even more foreign tension causing new policies and treaties to be signed. President Eisenhower wanted to promote space exploration, but wanted to keep it peaceful yet competitive with the Soviet Union so he proposed the Open Skies policy, to allow either nation to fly reconnaissance spacecraft over the globe ( Chaddha, 2007). Since the Soviet Union rejected this policy it increased tension because they did not want to be cooperative with the US in any manner. In order to establish middle ground with the Soviet Union the Moon Treaty was created, otherwise, known as the Agreement Governing the Activities of States on the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies ( Department of State, 1967). This treaty included that no part of space is owned by a specific country, international co-operation off Earth and exploring space for scientific reasons, emphasizing on not to carry any weapon of any sort in space. This helped die down the fear of any country placing weapons other than photographic or scientific satellites into orbit. Eventually, the Space Race main political impact was that the US and the Soviet Union began to cooperate which developed the space mission, Apollo-Soyuz (Dunbar, 2008).

Despite the different political views, this was to become the first time each country had displayed congeniality during the Cold War and Space Race under the president Gerald Ford. The signing of the Five Year Agreement between the Soviet Union and the US was what helped establish a middle ground between the two competitors, to work together to explore deeper into space ( The

Nixon-Kosygin Summit, 1975). When political tension grew between the countries in other ways, cooperation between them would still be running, the importance of science was far more important despite their different political views they had (Dunbar, 2008). Having foreign policies for science during the Space Race allowed the science community to keep progressing into the new modern technology and programs such as NASA and the Soviet space program.

Although the US had won the Space Race by putting the first (American) man of all mankind on the moon, the Moon treaty still plays an important role with not only Soviet Russia but all existing countries that can now have access to explore space. Nearly ninety-one countries have signed the Moon treaty to this day in order in stay in terms with the US since they were the first country to reach the moon and win the space race (Department of State, 1967). Since space is considered foreign territory, the need for space law is very evident between powers like the US and the Soviet Union, to avoid tension and potential war to claim celestial bodies. The international space law also helps other countries with developing space programs to not become aggressors but to work together in order to acquire new, scientific breakthroughs.

With the aftermath of WWll and Space Race, the US emerge as a superpower and proved itself as the leading nation by landing on the moon. The space race demonstrated the pros of having a democracy rather than a communist state. The US as a government of democracy delivered a blow to the Soviet Union on how communism cannot lead to a better nation by landing on the moon first. The Space Race and Cold War was not only a race in technology but more political in a sense of what government system is better. That is why the US was far more successful and ahead in the space race, democracy displayed the country’s view on working together in ways they had not before. The late president John F. Kennedy (JFK) gave his speech to the public to inspire America , despite his short presidence he had an influential impact on the

Space Race. JFK’s speech of space exploration helped motivate the citizens of this country to look at the stars:

“We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too. It is for these reasons that I regard the decision last year to shift our efforts in space from low to high gear as among the most important decisions that will be made during my incumbency in the office of the Presidency.” (Kennedy,1962).

The Space Race did not only provide new technology and new foreign policies but success in one's government (The Space Age, 2017). Without a democratic government, the US would not have been able to gain support and funding it needed in order to get a man on the moon to outdo the rest of the world. The need to shut down a communist state was at high stakes because American believed all people deserved to be free and to influence the ideology of democracy to other parts of the world. Although John F. Kennedy never got to see the accomplishment of landing on the moon, he passed believing that that country he served for will be able to accomplish anything they put their minds to. The presidency of John F. Kennedy, Dwight D. Eisenhower and Gerald Ford greatly influenced the outcome of the Space Race by gaining political support by the public, engaging in more science funding and helping allies of the US.

The impact of an important event in history such as the Space Race has influenced our technology, foreign policies and our status as a world power. The new and improved technology that evolved from this event, we use daily in our lives that we take advantage of, without it

society would be the same as it is today. The change in foreign policies in space has changed relationships with many countries, scientist now collaborate internationally on a large scale, the same way they were able to send a man to the moon. America was able to achieve a world status of a global power because of the successes of winning the Space Race. Claiming democracy is the ideal government to achieve anything not done by mankind. Now we can look to the stars knowing that we can get anywhere, “... not because they are easy, but because they are hard,...”(Kennedy, 1962). Space, as the final frontier is what will bring humanity together to push our limits into space and beyond.

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