During the early years of the Space Race , success was marked by headline-making "firsts". Russia took an early lead in the race, even after a few disappointing failures, and managed to be the first in outer space. Little was known by the Americans about the Soviet's its space program. Detailed information about the missions and the identity of the program managers and engineers were closely guarded state secrets, no one beyond a closed circle of scientists and technicians knew when the Soviets were launching a rocket. The Soviets reported only their successes and managed to keep the failure of so many missions hidden for decades, up until 1989 when the notebook of Konstatin Feoktiskov, an engineer and cosmonaut of the Soviet-Union, was found and contained details about most Soviet launches. The largest of the Soviet's known crashes was the explosion of the N-1, which was a rocket made to send men to the moon. It was a larg

Sputnik 2 was much more than just a satellite, it was larger and carried the first life-form into space, a dog named Laika. Laika was strapped to instruments to measure the effects of space travel on living things. Laika's heartbeat increased rapidly during takeoff but settled once in orbit. The dog survived for 100 hours before the oxygen supply in the satellite began to run out, the dog was painlessly put to sleep by remote control. This was the first evidence that living creatures, and perhaps humans, could survive the stresses of space travel.

The Soviet-Union stunned the world with the launch of Sputnik (satellite) on October 4, 1957. Sputnik broke through the gravitational pull and started circling the earth at 560 miles above ground. The Soviet wasted no time in taking advantage of the propaganda victory it had won "The present generation will witness how the freed and conscious labor of the people of the new socialist society turns the most daring of a man's dreams into reality" (Aaseng, Nathan p43) The National Broadcasting Company announced the Soviet victory over beeps coming from Sputnik as it orbited the earth. "Listen now for the sound which forever more separates the old from the new" (Aaseng, Nathan p 44). While the Americans were still hitting themselves over the head about losing the satellite race, the Soviets sent Sputnik 2 into orbit on November 2nd 1957, only one month after Sputnik.

From 1958 through 1961, six more earth-orbiting Sputniks were launched by the U.S.S.R. These satellites help improve reentry techniques and recovery techniques for human flight. On October 4, 1959, exactly two years after the first Sputnik launch, the Soviets sent the first spacecraft around the Moon. Luna 3 took pictures of the Moon's far side and sent them to earth. A month earlier, after five unsuccessful attempts which were kept quiet, the Soviet Luna 2 spacecraft had collided with the Moon. This, of course brought the Soviets one step closer to the goal of manned space flight. The next step for the Soviets was manned space flight. On March 23, 1961 Ivan Ivanovich (Russian "John Doe"), a lifeless space dummy which was used to test Vostok spacecraft, the space suit as well as the tracking

Some common words found in the essay are:
Moon United, Laika Laika, Konstatin Feoktiskov, Aaseng Nathan, Considering Soviets, Von Braun, Furthermore Sputniks, February Vanguard's, Americans Soviet's, Johnson Kennedy's, space race, aaseng nathan, satellite orbit, von braun, reached goals satellite, soviets sent, manned space, sputnik 2, failure vanguard, space dummy, manned space flight, reached goals,
Approximate Word count = 1493
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)