Space Race

(noun)

A 20th-century competition between two Cold War rivals, the Soviet Union and the United States, for supremacy in spaceflight capability. It had its origins in the missile-based nuclear arms race between the two nations that occurred following World War II, enabled by captured German rocket technology and personnel. The technological superiority required for such supremacy was seen as necessary for national security, and symbolic of ideological superiority. It spawned pioneering efforts to launch artificial satellites, unmanned space probes of the Moon, Venus, and Mars, and human spaceflight in low Earth orbit and to the Moon.

Related Terms

Examples of Space Race in the following topics:

  • The Space Race

  • The Eisenhower Administration

    • He sent the Army to Arkansas to enforce court orders regarding racial integration, created NASA, and made the space race against Russia a high priority.
    • The "Space Race" originated from the missile-based nuclear arms race between the the U.S. and Soviet Union that occurred following World War II, as both countries sought to recruit German engineers who worked on ballistic missile programs that could be utilized to launch objects into space.
    • The Soviet Union also later beat the U.S. for the first human in space, Yuri Gagarin, on April 12, 1961.
    • Those initiatives were necessary for success in the subsequent administrations' effort to win the Space Race.
    • Summarize the Space Race and the domestic and foreign policies of Eisenhower's presidency

  • Reactions to Sputnik

    • The United States had held itself to be the world leader in space technology and missile development.
    • After the initial public shock, the Space Race began, leading to the first human launched into space, Project Apollo, and the first manned moon landing in 1969.
    • On July 29, 1958, President Eisenhower signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act, creating NASA.
    • Sputnik, which means "satellite" in Russian, was the Soviet entry in a scientific race to launch the first satellite ever.
    • Explain why the Soviet launch of the Sputnik satellite created such fear in the United States, and led to the Space Race.

  • The Nuclear Arms Race

    • The nuclear arms race was a competition for supremacy in nuclear warfare between the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War.
    • The nuclear arms race was a competition for supremacy in nuclear warfare between the United States, the Soviet Union, and their respective allies during the Cold War .
    • The Space Race showcased technology critical to the delivery of nuclear weapons—the ICBM boosters—while maintaining the appearance of being for science and exploration.
    • Summarize the nuclear arms race between the U.S. and the Soviet Union

  • The John F. Kennedy Administration

    • Kennedy's presidency is known for his New Frontier policies, containment policy toward the Soviet Union, support for civil rights, and expansion of the space program.
    • Kennedy is also known for the expansion of the U.S. space program.
    • Kennedy wanted the U.S. to take the lead in the so-called "space race" for reasons of strategy and prestige.
    • On November 21, 1962, in a cabinet meeting with administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) James E.
    • Vice-President Johnson assured that lessons learned from the space program had military value as well, and so the space program under Kennedy began.

  • The Interactionist Perspective

    • Race and ethnicity affect the meaning we attach to each other's actions.
    • One of the most influential symbolic interactionist theorists on race and ethnic relations was Robert Park.
    • Competition was created by groups fighting for urban resources, like land, which led to a division of urban space into ecological niches.
    • This theory served as a foundation for his influential theory of racial assimilation known as the "race relation cycle".
    • Then, after some time, a hierarchical arrangement can prevail—one of accommodation—in which one race is dominant and others dominated.

  • The Atomic Race

  • Social Definition of Race

    • Debates continue in and among academic disciplines as to how race should be understood.
    • Following the World War II, alongside empirical and conceptual problems with "race," evolutionary and social scientists were acutely aware of how beliefs about race had been used to justify discrimination, apartheid, slavery, and genocide.
    • The social construction of race has developed within various legal, economic, and sociopolitical contexts, and may be the effect, rather than the cause of major race-related issues.
    • This map depicts the three great races, according to Meyers Konversationslexikon, of 1885-90.
    • The subtypes of the Mongoloid race are shown in yellow and orange tones, those of the Europid race in light and medium grayish green-cyan tones, and those of the Negroid race in brown tones.

  • Permutations of Distinguishable Objects

    • To understand the application of this concept, consider a race in which 3 different prizes are awarded to the top 3 fastest competitors.
    • If 25 competitors participate in the race, in how many distinct orders could the three prizes be awarded?
    • There are $13,800$ possible permutations in which the 3 top prizes may be awarded to the 25 race competitors.
    • The hand is exactly the same as the following hand: a 10 of diamonds, an ace of spaces and a 3 of clubs.

  • Race and Genetics

    • People's understanding of "race" emerged long before we knew anything about genetics.
    • There are very few biological differences between the races and there is no "race" gene or set of genes to speak of.
    • The relationship between race and genetics has relevance for the ongoing controversies regarding race.
    • Rather, race is a social construct and a product of culture, not biology.
    • Recall what recent discoveries in genetics has revealed about the concept of race