Throughout history there have been wars, conflicts and competition. Usually this is destructive, but not in the case of the space race. It was a competition between the United States and Soviet Russia for space, as one can easily imagine. Of course the situation was more complicated than that, it began soon after the end of the Cold War, and competitiveness between countries had not yet completely disappeared when Russia announced that it would start a space program, the world was surprised (since no other country had any space program) Especially the United States which still had poor relations with Russia, thus began an important period in history that led to advances in technology, knowledge and even relations between the two very different countries. When Russia's plans for a satellite When the launch was announced, the world didn't believe they had the technology to do it, until they succeeded and launched an automated satellite called Sputnik (Russian for companion) later named Sputnik I. Del weighing 184 pounds, it was supposed to be the first artificial object to be put into Earth orbit. It was launched on April 12, 1957 on a modified Soviet R7 missile, making it “apparently capable of delivering a nuclear warhead into U.S. airspace” (history.com). America was now certain that it had to reach the Soviets. Thus began a twelve-year run, the end of which remained far out of sight. After Sputnik I, Russia did many other things in the space race, starting with Sputnik II. A satellite larger than Sputnik as it carried a unique payload: a living, breathing dog named Laika. The success of this mission demonstrated that living beings can survive the forces of microgravity which were very poor at the time... middle of paper ......lunar surface Neil Armstrong descended the ladder and with the first step of the humanity on the moon famously said "One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind" (Neil Armstrong 1969). While America was doing well, the Soviets had quite a few problems, including the death of their top rocket scientist and several failed launches. This is what allowed America to move forward and finish so much further ahead. After the success of Apollo 11, the Americans and Russians knew the space race was over. In the 1970s there were 6 more Apollo missions, one of which (Apollo 13) failed. The final mission of the space race was the Apollo – Soyus mission in which an Apollo craft with three American astronauts met in orbit with a Soyus craft and three Soviet cosmonauts, they docked and the commander's friendly greeting showed the improvement of relations between the two countries..