The arms race that started between the United States and the USSR following the end of World War II metamorphosed into a space race that effectively started with the launch of Sputnik in 1957 and ended in 1972 with the cancellation of the Apollo Project at NASA. The launch of Sputnik shocked the United States out of its post-WWII false sense of scientific superiority. American pride and a sense of national security required that the United States not lose the new great frontier regardless of the cost. At the peak of the Space Race, the United States was spending over four percent of the national budget on the effort, exceeding the amount spent on housing and community development. No one questions the impressive achievements of the space program, …show more content…
As NASA programs’ demand offset those of the defense programs, there was a shift in employment that went from aircraft production to missile and space production. More workers and more ideas led to the creation of the first satellite communication system, Intelsat-I, in 1965, that eventually lowered the annual cost of satellite communication from $25,000 to just under $1,000 by 1971. Prior to the Space Race era, astronomy was described as a “small science,” with only a few hundred astronomers, limited research funds, and limited observational facilities. From 1960-1970, the number of astronomers tripled, reaching around 2,500, as NASA, the Department of Defense, and the National Science Foundation worked together to produce a rise in the number of astronomy doctorates. Astronomers also began working as members of large project teams opposed to their individualistic research during the pre-space days. Not only did astronomy burgeon, but it became a more open science. Younger astronomers with more diverse backgrounds were drawn from other fields to join this scientific revolution. In fact, although Jim Crow laws were still in place, many space programs such as NASA opened their ranks to middle-class African Americans, many of them female. While the Space Race praised white, male astronauts as heroes, only later was the …show more content…
In the mid-1950s, Walt Disney, having teamed up with Wernher von Braun, the German-born father of modern rocketry, created a very popular television show called “Man in Space.” Not even a year later, the government announced that the U.S. would be starting a satellite program. Word of the Soviets’ progress had reached America at this point, but Disney felt he had played a large role in stimulating the government’s announcement. Shows such as “Lost in Space” and “Star Trek” soon followed with old-fashioned humor and futuristic visions of outer space. Eventually, every American was talking about the Space Race and it left every little boy wanting a plastic space helmet for Christmas. Many technology legends, such as Microsoft’s Paul Allen and Apple’s Steve Wozniak, attribute their love of science and technology back to the Space