The Great Space Race

Before Gagarin did so in his Vostok capsule, no man had ventured there, although the great space race had already begun a few years earlier. In October 1957, the USSR had launched Sputnik 1, the first artificial satellite, into space. It was followed the next month by Sputnik 2, with a dog named Laika on board. Laika is believed to have died of overheating hours after the launch—a fact that was made public only as recently as 2002 (earlier, the Soviets had claimed that Laika had been euthanized on day six due to oxygen depletion). 

Nevertheless it became clear that an animal passenger could survive a launch into space. By August 1960, another Sputnik craft flew into space with two dogs, Belka and Strelka, and several mice—and returned, all alive. 

With so much success for the Soviet side and America facing stiff competition, the Cold War got even chillier. In 1961, after Yuri Gagarin’s  108-minute flight made it back from space, and Moscow radio announced it, an American journalist phoned NASA for a reaction. “What is this!?” yelled a NASA press officer. “We’re all asleep down here!” Next morning a headline read: “Soviets Put Man in Space. Spokesman Says US Asleep.”

But competition often brings out the best in mankind. That year it must have sounded like an empty boast to many when President Kennedy announced that the US would put a man on the Moon in the 1960s itself. The Soviets and the Americans sent many more unmanned and manned missions into space. But the first man to set foot on the Moon was indeed an American, Neil Armstrong, on July 20th, 1969. 

Looking back, what giant steps have the space race made for mankind? Space flights called for many new products and new materials—all of which had to be developed. Today, innumerable such inventions find useful applications in the things we use every day: C-MOS digital camera sensors, telemedicine, WD-40 spray, improved LEDs and radial tyres, fire-retardant paints, materials used for things ranging from artificial limbs to aircraft-seats, enriched baby food, memory foam ... indeed there are hundreds of “spin-offs” from space that have vastly improved our lives. 

[There are also many products erroneously listed as space-tech spin-offs, only because the space program used them. These include Tang soft-drink powder, Velcro, Teflon, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), used in body scanning, and cordless power tools—although space technology contributed to the advancement of the last two.]

Today, it’s not just the USA and Russia that have their own space agencies. Many countries, including developing ones like India, Mexico and Pakistan, spend millions of dollars in space programs. 

And it’s not just the likes of Armstrong and Gagarin who will be going into space. Fifty years since Gagarin got there, ordinary folks, too, will soon be taking commercial flights as the man’s quest for new adventure continues.

Stay tuned with all the excitement by reading the two articles, Ticket to Ride and The Space Age, in the November issue of Reader's Digest, now on stands.