Notes on Development of the Cold War to 1968 – The Space Race

Resource Description

One aspect of superpower rivalry that was not so dangerous was the space race, though what was achieved in space could have worrying military applications.The USSR tested their first ICBM on 21 August 1957 and followed this on 4 October with a rocket that placed the first satellite in space, Sputnik 1. This marked the official beginning of the space race. These represented great propaganda victories for the Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev, who in 1956 had said of the West, ‘We will bury you’. These two achievements were greeted with concern in the United States because they indicated that the Soviet Union was edging ahead of the United States technologically, and their rocket/missile technology had obvious military applications.