The Space Race
To many, October 4th, 1957 marks the beginning of the space race between the USSR and the United States. The race to explore the unknown reaches of the universe officially began two years earlier on the second of August, 1955 when the USSR announced their intent to launch an artificial satellite into space in response to the USA’s intention to do the same.
On October 4, 1957, the USSR made their first strides into outer space by successfully launching Sputnik I, the first Earth orbiting satellite in history. Later that year, they successfully launched Sputnik II. On January 1, 1958, the USA was on the USSR’s heels with the launch of the Explorer I Satellite, which led to the discovery of the Van Allen Radiation Belt. Later, in October of 1958, the USA under President Eisenhower founded NASA.
The USSR’s satellite program also led to some incredible discoveries, such as the first images of the dark side of the moon. Following their success with Sputnik I and II, the USSR began their lunar program.
The 1960s saw the launch of the manned space program in both the US and the USSR. In the US, the first program to include astronauts was Mercury. Gemini came after, and then Apollo, with the audacious goal of landing men on the surface of the Moon. In 1969, Neil Armstrong gained infamy by being the first man to walk on the Moon, leaving behind his footsteps and the legacy of American dominance in space.
Apollo 15: The First Road Trip in Space
The First American Women in Space
By the time I joined NASA in 1983, the US had launched the shuttle program, with astronauts orbiting Earth and visiting the International Space Station. The space race was over, and global cooperation was the new trend. With the end of Apollo came the end of the frenzied excitement that glued the world to television screens in every country. I joined NASA two weeks before Sally Ride’s historic flight, STS-7, which ushered in a new climate of gender equality to the agency.
While there had been only 32 Apollo astronauts, now there were hundreds of shuttle astronauts, and their names were quickly forgotten as were the missions. Some of the most memorable missions were mishaps, including the Challenger and Columbia disasters, and the peak of humanity’s role in space exploration became a distant memory, lost in a model of repetition rather than innovation.
As NASA shifted focus from gender equality to multiculturalism and diversity, I moved from AI into web services at NASA Ames, witnessing the launch of Netscape, and the advent of an internet-based model for releasing information about NASA to the public.
9/11 ushered in even more caution and an emphasis on securing the nation, and it wasn’t until the Obama Administration that we saw the emergence of disruptive innovation in space again via the New Space entrepreneurs, including Elon Musk and SpaceX.
I left NASA shortly after the final shuttle flight, STS-135, and it wasn’t until I retired a decade later that I stumbled onto the world of space collectibles. By then I had co-created a lunar map of the First Roads in Space with FiOR Innovations, an Oregon-based mapping company. The timing of our project coincided with the return of the US manned missions to the Moon, now called Artemis.
Vintage map handed out at the Esso gas stations during the Apollo era
Viewing our maps as visionary memorabilia made perfect sense to me, and before long, I had acquired an extensive collection of my own, including a number of vintage planetary maps.
What’s next for Reloquence? Charting a map of the First Roads on Mars makes the most sense in the short term, but for the longer term, the sky is literally the limit.
