The Space Race and Its Importance to the Contemporary World

This romantic picture of Buzz Aldrin and the American flag, taken during NASA's Apollo 11 mission to the moon in July of 1969, not only illustrates the progress that mankind had achieved in the decades following the dawn of the 20th century but also represents the eventual solidification of American as the primary world superpower and (arguably) marks the beginning of a new period in human history: the modern era. After World War II, the United States and the Soviet Union emerged from the war-ravaged world as the two supreme world superpowers. The relatively peaceful time following the war was, however, short-lived as tensions soon began to build between these two competing giants. These tensions soon materialized in the Cold War, and more specifically, as the Space Race among other events with the Soviet Union's launch of the space satellite Sputnik, carrying Yuri Gagarin (the first man in space), on October 4, 1957. American were terrified by the spontaneity of the event; in an age when nuclear war with the U.S.S.R. seemed inevitable, Sputnik's orbital navigation of Earth reinforced the possibility that the U.S.S.R. was capable of and considering such an attack, thus adding to the constant fear and paranoia felt by many Americans during the Cold War period. The Space Race had officially begun, and in the following decade, America and the Soviet Union would both strive to become the first nation to land a man on the moon. America's plan of landing a man on the moon was formally, and publicly, announced by John F. Kennedy in his Special Message to the Congress on Urgent National Needs on May 25, 1961 in which he declared that "this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth." Although the newly elected president would never see this plan come to fruition due to his assassination on November 22, 1963 in Dallas, Texas, NASA would eventually land three intrepid men on the moon on July 20, 1969 with its launch of the Apollo 11 mission, accomplishing Kennedy's ambitious goal to land a man on the moon by the end of the decade. On that momentous day—July 20, 1969—Neil Armstrong would famously remark as he stepped out of the lunar module for the first time, "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind." This statement proved true as the Apollo mission not only foreshadowed the eventual dissolution of the U.S.S.R in the coming decades but also ushered in an entirely new era for mankind, a technologically sophisticated era for future generations of people. The Apollo 11 mission, and the entire Space Race in general, led to the invention of countless technological devices that are essential to life as we know it today, including cell phones, MRI and CAT scans, and developments in robotics. This picture portrays the many innovations and byproducts that manifested in the first moon landing and captures the countless more that would be made in the future as a result of this single, critical historic event.