With little flair, the start of the space race happened on October 4, 1957  with the launching of the soviet satellite:
SPUTNIK.

    With the Russians making the first move, the US had no apparent choice but to retaliate.  On May 5, 1961 we launched Mercury 3. Our first attempt was not as successful as the Sputnik, Mercury only stayed in orbit for 15 mins, but we had one astronaut in space.

    Beating the Americans by one  month the USSR launched Vostok 1 on April 12, 1961.
Vistok 2 was launched 4 months after the original and spent the first day in space.
Four years afterwards, with the launching of Voskhod 2 on March 18, 1965 the fist space walk lasted 10 min. by cosmonaut Alexi Leonov.

    3 months later the US completed a space walk, though months later, the length was nearly double the original time ( 21 mins.)

    Still , no one had accomplished  what both sides were working for : the Moon.

    When President Kennedy made a promise to the American people, he was just furthering the race to the moon , and trying to push communism from Any Town, America.

    As the turbulent '60's rolled by, both sides reveled in the fact that they had come so far , in space, where previously no man had succeeded.

    But, for all their work it would be a few years , and many failed missions until the Americans pulled ahead and landed on the Moon.
    On July 16, 1969 Apollo 11, with three history making astronauts Neil Armstrong, Edward (Buzz) Aldrin, and Michael Collins landed on the Moon, and achieved what men has been working for for years.

This picture is of Buzz Aldrin standing next to the American flag on the surface of the moon.

    Now that the US had reached the moon, the Soviets tried not to be far behind.

    As the soviets were catching up, the US government started to voice anti-Communist missions, and put out propaganda that the soviets were sending up spy satellites to help them win the cold war.

    No proof of these so called spy satellites ever has been discovered, or released by the United
States government.

    As the years went on , both sides had their achievements, and many disappointments. The United States continued to provoke the Soviets, with claims of false spying, and the Soviets kept denying. Eventually they called a stop to the Cold War, but the race for the skies and above continues to this day.
 

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