The Race to Space
Space, the last frontier, was possibly the most challenging of all to penetrate. Ironically, the penetration of this frontier came about through a period of political strife known as the Cold War. The Cold War was a time of great political tension and struggle, which followed World War II; it was a time when the world was divided by political beliefs and policies. Continents, nations, and even families were divided by political ideologies. This was an era that spawned many conflicts, conflicts that were unforgettable to those who lived through them. For example, the Vietnam War, and the Korean War are such conflicts. There is a battleground, however, that is perhaps one of the most memorable of all, the space race. During the cold war the United States, representing freedom and democracy, and the Soviet Union, representing communism, attempted to outdo each other through great achievements in space and thus glorify themselves and their political system. This was a period when an otherwise beneficial scientific program to explore a new frontier was lost in a heated political battlefield and new and amazing scientific achievements were drowned out or dulled in the mad world of political focus and ambition.
Project Mercury was far from a failure, however. Scientifically it was a success and a major accomplishment. For one thing, Project Mercury's three primary goals of getting a man into space, studying man's ability to perform in space, and successfully and safely retrieving both man and space capsule intact, had been met. Another reason it was considered successful was the fact that all of the project's goals had been met, which meant that American scientists had done the long-thought impossible and had breached the harsh and unforgiving frontier of space. This was something Americans had never done before and something nobody had done at all until just very recently. From this perspective, Project Mercury was a definite success, enabling the American scientists to move to the next phase in space technology, Project Gemini. Soviets already ahead in the space race in 1957, the Americans were quick to start on Project Mercury to get a man into space. Project Mercury was the first chance for American victory in the space race, especially since the Soviet Satellite Sputnik 1 already launched. The scientific significance of Project Mercury was quickly drowned out in the political chaos of the space race. The Russians were already working on a project to get a man into space and the Americans needed to hastily follow suit or lose face in the political battlefield. American scientists worked around the clock to develop a rocket and capsule that would do the job. Because of the politics of the era, the three main goals of Project Mercury were hurriedly reduced to one by the media. The goal was to get a man into space and orbit him around the earth before the Soviets could do so. As John F. Kennedy said in his 1962 speech at Rice University, Texas: emphasis on the program required that only the best and brightest represent America. One might wonder why Chuck Yeager, who was acknowledged as the best test pilot of that era, was not selected as a Mercury astronaut. But the hard-boiled attitude of Yeager and his lack of a college education did not suit the political goal of the Mercury program. The first Mercury astronaut was Commander Alan B. Shephard, Jr. He was followed by Capt. Virgil I. Grissom. Then Lt. Col. John H. Glenn, Jr. who was the first American to orbit the earth. Next were Lt. Col. M. Scott Carpenter, Comdr. Walter M. Schirra, Jr., and Maj. Leroy Gordon Cooper. Donald K. Slayton was grounded due to a previously undiscovered heart problem. Project Gemini had three primary objectives. The first one was to subject humans and technology to long-term space flights that lasted two weeks or more. The second primary goal was to rendezvous and dock a spacecraft with an already orbiting, unmanned, spacecraft and steer and mani
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Approximate Word count = 1867
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)
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