The Space Race was a fierce competition between the United States and the Soviet Union to establish superiority in space exploration. The two nations wanted to demonstrate their technological prowess and earn the prestige that came with achieving milestones in a field previously thought of as science fiction.
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The Space Race spans many years and an almost dizzying array of accomplishments. This timeline offers an excellent summary of what led to the race, some of the key personalities involved, and the long list of technological advances that put humanity first into space and ultimately on the moon. The piece includes photos and video, as well as links to related material.
Older readers may associate NASA inventions with things like Tang drink mix and freeze-dried ice cream. But the list of inventions that can be traced back to NASA is much longer, and involves technologies that many of use daily. This piece provides a glimpse of just how many ways NASA has changed our lives, even if we didn’t know it.
Space isn’t just for astronauts anymore. For roughly $250K, a civilian can now ride a rocket to the edge of space—four minutes beyond the Kármán Line—before gliding gently back to Earth. The rocket? It lands itself. The tech? Funded by billionaires. Because this isn’t just a space race. It’s a race to shape the future of orbit, exploration, and who controls the skies above us.
Because the Space Race involved so many historical figures, there are a host of fascinating stories to tell. The American History Tellers podcast dives into the Space Race across four episodes. The podcast spans everything from Werner von Braun’s dream of turning missiles into space rockets to intrigues surrounding Apollo 11 and its trip to the moon that became the symbolic end to the Space Race.
The second iteration of the Space Race is already heating up between the US and China, with both countries working to develop technologies for space superiority. Among those, the X-37B has stoked fears in Beijing that the vehicle could one day deliver powerful weapons from space.
After a fire killed three astronauts on the launchpad of Apollo 1, the public became ambivalent about funding the multibillion-dollar program until the successful moon landing in 1969. The landers alone cost $388M, while each spacesuit cost $100,000.
Spacesuits have come a long way since cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin's orange jumpsuit used in the world's first entry into space in 1960. The iconic outfit is a crucial feature of all space exploration, ensuring humans are protected during launch, spacewalks, re-entry, and more. From innovations in thermal wear to the incremental changes to space helmets, dive into spacesuit history here.
This podcast series explores Apollo 11 through firsthand stories from the engineers, mission controllers, and astronauts who made the moon landing possible, culminating in 13 minutes of NASA archive audio leading up to the landing.
In 1972, astronaut Gene Cernan became the last person to set foot on the moon. He was part of Apollo 17, the most recent manned mission to the moon. Why was Apollo 17 there? What were they trying to accomplish? This video offers a retrospective of the mission, including archival footage and more recent interviews with Harrison Schmitt, the pilot who flew Apollo 17’s lunar lander.
To make room for moon rocks to be brought to Earth, a lunar "toss zone" was created, where items not deemed mission-critical were left behind, including the camera that broadcast Neil Armstrong’s first steps on the moon.
Weave together the many narratives of world history with our highly curated and expanding selection of diverse, fascinating resources designed to showcase the breadth and richness of Earth's story, from the earliest traces of human civilization to the dramatic developments of contemporary cultures.