Space Race

Thumbing through the pages of the March 3, 1961 edition of Life magazine, one theme was very apparent, the fascination with the space race. The cover of the Magazine depicted John Glenn, Virgil Grissom, and Alan Shepard looking u in the sky. Recently it was announced that one of these three men would be the first American in space. Obviously the thought of a man in space was on the forefront of everyone’s mind as almost a third of the magazine was devoted to this theme of space. However, what I found most interesting in this article was not the fascination with space but, the interest in beating the Russians at every step along the way.

                The article I chose to focus upon spanned pages 32-33 and it discussed the space exploration timetable for both the Soviet Union and the United States. The article started out by discussing what both nations had already achieved in the space race. The Russians had up to this point already launched numerous satellites, landed a probe on the moon, and launched and retrieved to dogs from space. The article then used an exasperated tone to describe the Americans achievements, which consisted of only getting a few satellites into orbit. Clearly the author of this piece was less than satisfied with Americans achievements in space up to this point. It almost seemed as if he were trying to goad the space program into taking greater actions by being pessimistic towards their efforts. From here the article gets much more entertaining.

                The next section of the article discusses the space exploration time table from 1961 to 1973. Back in this time period it seems that the expectations of conquering space as the final frontier where exceedingly high. According to the graphic representation of the space time table the Russians were expecting to have a man on the moon by 1967, only six years after this issue was published. From here, it seems, they expected to have a rover on both Mars and Venus by 1968 and a permanent orbiting space station by late 1969. The fact that the only permanent space station, a project consisting of over seven of the wealthiest nations, has not been completed and it is over forty years later, is a testament to the optimism of the time period. The United States’ space exploration time table seemed almost underachieving compared to the soviet one. The first major US breakthrough, getting a man in space, was scheduled for 1962, almost a year and a half after the soviets had achieved the same goal. From here, the US had no other major projects scheduled until 1971 when it planned to land its first man on the moon.

                What interested me most about this article was the respect it gave to the Soviet Union as a nation. Today every American believes that we are the greatest nation in the world. However back when this article was written, it is clear that we have not always thought this way. The notion of any country beating us in anyway technologically is unthinkable. This is why I found it so interesting that the article says that the Russians not only beat us into space but will beat us to the moon and mars as well. However, it is still apparent in the writing and in some of the other articles in the book that the US Space program and the American people were not going to give up and let the Russians beat them to space and, they would do everything in their power to win the space race.