The Apollo lunar programme continued until 1972 and 12 astronauts touched down on the Moon's surface. This is not just because of the life-saving benefits, but also the promise of ending disruption, and the glory and validation for those who succeed. Mark Wolverton is a science writer, author, and playwright whose articles have appeared in Undark, Wired, Scientific American, Popular Science, Air & Space Smithsonian, and American Heritage, among other publications. But US TV networks quickly bored of the Moon landings. And he believes that the Americans would have been compelled to do the same and even try to continue to outdo their communist rivals. On October 4, 1957, the Soviet Union launched the satellite Sputnik and, with it, an international space race. "Lost in Space -- Can NASA Recapture the Magic?" The first seeds were sown in 1957 by President Eisenhower following the launch of the first satellite by the USSR. Science. In his autobiography, Gagarin later described his thoughts: “What if I stepped on them and I fell on the red carpet? The following week, the US Department of Justice accused two Chinese hackers of targeting vaccine development on behalf of Beijing's intelligence services. (May 6, 2008) https://airandspace.si.edu/exhibitions/space-race, Ritter, Peter. On the other hand, Russia won the race to launch the first live creatures into space. It is not hard to develop a vaccine - it's hard to prove a vaccine is safe and effective, Russia President Vladimir Putin chairs a meeting about the Sputnik V vaccine, Prof Lawrence Gostin says he has never seen such high political stakes for a medical product, US President Donald Trump visits a lab making components for a potential vaccine. We use cookies to personalise content and ads, to provide social media features and to analyse our traffic. Back in 1957, the Soviet Union had launched the Sputnik satellite and won the race for space. This programme is not currently available on BBC iPlayer. Want a daily email of lesson plans that span all subjects and age groups? Jeff Steers describes the history -- and the benefits -- of the space race. His most recent book is “A Life in Twilight: The Final Years of J. Robert Oppenheimer.” In 2016-17, he was a Knight Science Journalism fellow at MIT.

By today's standards the Apollo 11 onboard computer was pretty crude, but it was ahead of its time and was crucial for America's successful Moon landings. Although “accidents or failures did not belong to the narrative of the victorious space program,” and those that were met “by those candidates still out of the public eye remained hidden from public view,” it was impossible to ignore the deaths of already publicized Soviet heroes, such as Vladimir Komarov, who died in a re-entry accident in 1967. The USSR was using a rocket called the Proton which is still in use today. Read about our approach to external linking.