The Space Race

The space race was a very heated competition between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. during the cold war. The space race began on October 1957, when the Soviet Union launched Sputnik, which was a satellite that orbited around earth. The Soviet Union was the first country to ever do this. The United States was not able to do this until many years later, and had many failed attempts at satellites. They had their first succesful satellite in 1958. A Soviet cosmonaut named Yuri Gagarin became the first person in space when he entered orbit in the Soviet Space ship Vostok 1 on April 12, 1961. This day is now a holiday in Russia and in many other Eastern bloc countries. The Russians were the first country to send a human into space. Many people feel that the Russians won the space race.