1. SPACE RACE
Soviet Union vs. America

2. Brinkmanship
 Both the US and the
USSR are building up
supplies of weapons
and to threaten each
other.
 This is the basis for the
space race, or
competition to be the
most advanced in
terms of space
exploration.

3. Soviets are lagging behind
 Even though the US
and the USSR were
both considered to be
superpowers the Soviet
Union was clearly
behind.
 The US had
created/exploded an
atomic bomb (1945)
and a hydrogen bomb
(1952) before they did.

4. Soviets play catch up.
 On October 4, 1957
the Soviet Union
launched the first
ever satellite called
Sputnik.
 Sputnik looked like a
beach ball. It
weighed 183 pounds
and orbited the earth
once every 96
minutes.

5. America Reacts!
 The US was shocked and
alarmed.
 We felt as though we had
failed by not beating the
Soviets to a rocket
launch.
 The US immediately
began pouring money
into math, science,
technology and foreign
language education.

6. Flopnik
 The US immediately got to work on our
space program.
 On December 6, 1957 we attempted to
launch Vanguard, a 3.5 pound satellite.
 Vanguard did not successfully launch
and in fact burned up on the launch
pad.
 Vanguard and the beginnings of the US
space program were mocked. This set
the stage for a heavy focus in space.

7. The race is on!
 The US kept pushing
and in January 1958
we successfully
launched our first
rocket.
 The Soviet Union
continued to beat us at
almost every aspect of
space exploration until
July 20, 1969 when we
made the first manned
lunar landing!

8. Open Skies
 President Eisenhower
proposed an “open skies”
policy between the US
and the USSR.
 This policy would allow
Soviet planes to fly over
the US and vice versa to
guard against surprise
nuclear attacks.
 The Soviet Union refused
to participate in this.

9. U – 2 Incident
 Since the Soviets refused
to allow US planes to fly
over the CIA decided to
use high altitude U-2 spy
planes.
 In May 1960 the Soviets
shot down a U-2 spy
plane and captured the
pilot.
 They eventually released
him, but this made for
tense relations between
the US and the Soviet
Union and a lot of
mistrust.

10. U – 2 Incident
 Since the Soviets refused
to allow US planes to fly
over the CIA decided to
use high altitude U-2 spy
planes.
 In May 1960 the Soviets
shot down a U-2 spy
plane and captured the
pilot.
 They eventually released
him, but this made for
tense relations between
the US and the Soviet
Union and a lot of
mistrust.