The Space Race

1944 – 197565 items

cold warspace
The Space Race

From the V-2 to a handshake in orbit

Thirty years in which two superpowers raced to prove their systems in space. The Soviet Union took almost every first; the United States took the one everyone remembers. It began with rockets built to carry bombs and ended with the two sides docking their spacecraft in 1975.

How to read it

  • Programme bands: Mercury, Gemini and Apollo on one side, Vostok and the secret Soviet Moon programme on the other. Each flight sits inside its band.

  • Era bands: the missile race, the Sputnik crisis and détente.

  • Tags: filter by ussr or usa to follow one side, moon for the race to the Moon, crewed for people in space, rockets for the launchers and losses for the people it cost.

France, Japan, China and Britain each launched their first satellite along the way; they carry no side’s tag. Times are UTC. The companion timeline Apollo 11 follows one mission to the second.

The exploration and use of outer space … shall be the province of all mankind. — Outer Space Treaty, Article I, 1967

Items

  1. A V-2 reaches space

    Greifswalder Oie, off Peenemünde

  2. The missile race

    ≈ 12 years, 3 months

  3. Von Braun surrenders to the Americans

    Oberjoch and Schattwald, on the German–Austrian border

  4. Satellites promised for the Geophysical Year

    White House, Washington

  5. R-7, the first ICBM

    Baikonur, Site 1

  6. The Sputnik crisis

    9 months, 28 days

  7. Sputnik 1

    Baikonur, Site 1

  8. Laika aboard Sputnik 2

    Baikonur, Site 1

  9. Vanguard explodes on the pad

    Launch Complex 18A, Cape Canaveral

  10. Explorer 1

    Launch Complex 26A, Cape Canaveral

  11. NASA opens for business

    Dolley Madison House, Lafayette Square, Washington

  12. Project Mercury

    ≈ 4 years, 7 months

  13. The Mercury Seven

    Dolley Madison House, Lafayette Square, Washington

  14. Luna 2 hits the Moon

  15. Luna 3 sees the far side

  16. Vostok programme

    ≈ 3 years, 1 month

  17. Belka and Strelka come home

    Baikonur, Site 1

  18. The Nedelin catastrophe

    Baikonur, Site 41

  19. Valentin Bondarenko dies

    Moscow

  20. Gagarin orbits the Earth

    Vostok 1 landing site, near Engels

  21. Shepard’s Freedom 7

    Launch Complex 5, Cape Canaveral

  22. “Before this decade is out”

    United States Capitol

  23. Titov spends a day in orbit

    Baikonur, Site 1

  24. Glenn’s Friendship 7 orbits

    Launch Complex 14, Cape Canaveral

  25. “We choose to go to the Moon”

    Rice Stadium, Houston

  26. Cooper flies Faith 7 home by hand

    Launch Complex 14, Cape Canaveral

  27. Tereshkova, first woman in space

    Baikonur, Site 1

  28. Soviet crewed Moon programme

    ≈ 9 years, 11 months

  29. Voskhod 1, three men and no spacesuits

    Baikonur, Site 1

  30. Leonov’s spacewalk

  31. Project Gemini

    ≈ 1 year, 7 months

  32. Ed White’s spacewalk

  33. Mariner 4 passes Mars

    Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena

  34. Astérix, France’s first satellite

    Hammaguir, Algeria

  35. Gemini 6A and 7 meet in orbit

  36. Korolev dies

    Moscow

  37. Luna 9 lands softly

  38. Gemini 8, first docking

  39. Surveyor 1 lands

  40. Aldrin masters the spacewalk

  41. Outer Space Treaty signed

  42. Apollo 1 fire

    Launch Complex 34, Cape Canaveral

  43. Soyuz 1 crashes

    Soyuz 1 crash site, near Karabutak, Orenburg Oblast

  44. Zond 5 takes tortoises around the Moon

  45. Crewed Apollo flights

    ≈ 4 years, 2 months

  46. Apollo 8 and Earthrise

  47. N1 explodes on the pad

    Baikonur, Site 110

  48. Apollo 11 lands

  49. Luna 15 crashes

  50. Apollo 12 struck by lightning

    Launch Complex 39A, Kennedy Space Center

  51. Ohsumi, Japan’s first satellite

    Kagoshima Space Center, Uchinoura

  52. Apollo 13 oxygen tank explodes

  53. Dong Fang Hong 1, China’s first satellite

    Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center

  54. Luna 16 brings back Moon soil

  55. Lunokhod 1, the first rover

  56. Venera 7 lands on Venus

  57. Salyut 1, first space station

    Baikonur Cosmodrome

  58. Soyuz 11 crew die on the way home

    Soyuz 11 landing site, near Karazhal, Kazakhstan

  59. Prospero, Britain’s only home-grown launch

    Woomera Test Range, South Australia

  60. Mars 3 lands on Mars

  61. Détente in orbit

    ≈ 3 years, 2 months

  62. Nixon and Kosygin agree to fly together

    Moscow Kremlin

  63. Last humans leave the Moon

  64. Skylab

    Launch Complex 39A, Kennedy Space Center

  65. Apollo–Soyuz handshake