The following page is dedicated towards giving you a brief context about the development of Space Craze in American History. More specifically, you will find a very brief outline of some major events of the Space Race. If you wish a further in depth reading of the Space Race, please refer to one of the many sources cited in this page or in the bibliography.
Important to keep in mind: The Space Craze is defined as the period from 1957 to the end of the 1960s when Space became a highly interested topic in America, that impact many parts of Americans’ lives.
The Space Craze has its roots in the Space Race between the Soviet Union and the United States. The seeds of the Space Race were sown in 1950 when American and British geophysics called for the International Geophysical Year (IGY) in 1957 (Reichstein, 115). The goals of the IGY 1957 were cemented in 1954 when scientist set launching a satellite into space by 1957 as its main objective, which the United States and the Soviet Union greatly accepted (Reichstein 115).
The Soviet Union became the first nation to reach the goal set by IGY 1957. On October 4, 1957, the Soviet Union launched Sputnik I into the sky, which inevitably plunged the United States into a quest to explore the final frontier; however, it would take some time for America to get its space program operational and effective (Reichstein, 114-115 and Rosenberg 158). During Eisenhower’s waning years of presidency, he would see America through some serious ups and downs during the early years of the Space Race. Americans were further disappointed in the United States’ effort in the Space Race when the Soviet Union launched Sputnik II with a dog named Laika aboard a month after Sputnik I while America’s effort to launch its first satellite crashed and exploded on the launch pad (Reichstein, 116; Rosenberg, 161-162). However, in the midst of low moral among Americans, Eisenhower was able create NASA, a civilian entity responsible for American space exploration in 1958, which hastily drew up plans for project Mercury. On April 9, 1959 NASA unveiled the Mercury 7, a group of clean cut military officers and American family men, to the American public as its heroes and astronauts (Hersch, 78-80; Rosenberg, 162; Reichstein, 116-118).
Eventually president Kennedy would come to office in 1960, but before any progress in the Space Race was made, it suffered another loss to the Soviet Union. On April 12, 1961 Yuri Gagarin became the first man into space, making the United States appear further behind the Soviet Union in the Space Race (Reichstein, 118). Kennedy, about a month after America had lost this objective, would eventually pledge the United States fully to the Space Race. On May 25, 1961 in front of a public afraid of lagging behind in the space race, Kennedy committed the United States to land a man on the moon before the 1960s were over (Reichstein, 123; Rosenberg, 163).
In time, the United States quickly caught up with the Soviet Union and eventually surpassed the U.S.S.R through its project Mercury. On May 6, 1961, Alan Shepard became the first astronaut to make it into space and then on February 20, 1962, astronaut John Glenn orbited around the Earth 3 times in Friendship 7 (Reichstein 125). Likewise, in may of 1963 L. Gordon Cooper set the space endurance record with 22 orbits around the Earth (Reichstein, 125).
While the Space Race was going well for America, the nation was hit by a tragedy when Kennedy was assassinated on November 22, 1963 in Dallas, prompting Vice President Johnson to take his place. In the midst of Johnson’s Great Society programs and military escalation in Vietnam, he kept Kennedy’s goal of putting a man on the moon before the end of the 1960’s. During the Johnson administration, NASA had several success with its Gemini program, which successfully launched lunar probes Ranger 7 and Surveyor I, the first space walk by Edward White in 1965 and the first successful docking of two spaceships in 1966 (Reichstein, 125-126).
As Gemini was bearing fruit, NASA was also quickly working on the Apollo program in order to meet Kennedy’s goal of making it to the moon before the end of the 1960s, and it was quickly seeing results. The first Apollo spacecraft was launched January 22 1968, and 10 months latter the first successful manned Apollo mission, Apollo 7, carried three astronauts into orbit lasting eleven days (Reichstein, 127). Apollo 8 would get America even closer to the moon by successfully orbiting the moon ten times on December of 1968 (Reichstein, 127-128).
While America was coming closer to reaching the moon before the end of the 1960s, NASA lost several key close friends during this time period. James Webb in 1968, fearing his reputation may have been hurt by an unsuccessful Apollo mission, stepped down as the head administrator of NASA. Also in 1968, long time space advocate and beleaguered President Lyndon Johnson did not accept the Democratic Party’s nomination for reelection. Some scholars have advocated that this marked the beginning of the downfall of NASA’s space exploration after the success of Apollo 11 (Reichstein, 128-129).
In 1969, Richard Nixon assumed the oval office in the White House as the nation’s President. Later that year, the pinnacle moment NASA had worked towards was met with success. On July 20, 1969, Apollo 11 successfully carried the first men to the moon, astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, and officially completed Kennedy’s goal of reaching the moon before the end of the 1960s (Reichstein, 133; Chaikin, 55-57). While the Apollo 11 mission was a highlight for many Americans, it truly marked the end of the large-scale space exploration for America. With Americans already having a low support for the Apollo program prior to the moon landing, the general population lost interest in the following Apollo missions (Chaikin, 58; Launius, 165-167). Furthermore, Nixon cancelled Apollo missions eighteen through twenty, shrunk NASA’s budget considerably, and rejected a series of manned space exploration plans (Reichstein, 133). By the 1970’s the Space Craze had truly fizzled out and America had declared itself victor in the Space Race.