The Soviet Union And The United States During The Cold War Competition In Outer Space (1945-1969)

Space race is the comprehensive race of national science, technology, economic, military andnational institutions and quality. Both Soviet and American realized the importance of space raceas the same as political, economic and military element, and used space to reach their diplomaticends.The dissertation is a study on the space race between USSR and USA in1945-1969.According to declassified documents, the study will conclude that a trilogy, beginning,development and culmination can be clarified from the Second World War to Johnson andBrezhnev administrations. And in every phase, the study will focus on the change of USA andUSSR administrations’ national security strategy, the evolution of related agencies charged spacerace and the concrete space activities, to make know how Soviet and American space policychanged the process of the cold war.The whole thesis consists of four chapters. The main points of ‘The Background of SpaceRace (1945-1953)’ review the history of Soviet and America’s exploration before the SecondWorld War and space technology into cold war confrontation with the development of cold war.The second chapter titled ‘The Beginning of the Space Race (1953-1960)’ will focus on the shockand fear of the soviet satellite to western societies. In a series of attacks by Soviet satellite,American had to fight and opened the prelude of space race. The third chapter titled ‘TheDevelopment of the Space Race (1960-1964)’ will describe the way that American governmentbegins Apollo Project in order to revive American national prestige and win the cold war. Theforth chapter titled ‘The Climax of the Space Race (1964-1969)’, this study will describe the wayof Soviet into a passive situation. When American landed the moon, Soviet gave up their moonproject. With relaxation of cold war era, the Soviet Union and the United States ended the race.The dissertation employed a great deal of rare documents declassified by Russia and Americangovernments. Through careful researching the declassified documents, this dissertation tried toillustrate two viewpoints as follows: first, under the influence of the cold war, Soviet andAmerica’s space policy became a part of cold war prestige race, political race, Military race. BothSoviet and America attached great attention to political and psychological challenges of space race,and used space race to reach their diplomatic ends by all means. Second, as the symbol ofscience-technology level, industrial capacity, political system, Military power and national quality,space race is the race of comprehensive strength of Soviet and America. The cold war fundamentally changed the original trace of USSR and USA space policies and the space racechanged the cold war’s depth and the essence of the cold war.