The United States had the upper hand in the Beginning, but then Soviet Russia quickly caught up and surpassed the USA.
Part One
Van Allen Belts - 1958
While Soviet Russia sent the first dogs into space and completed their first orbit, the United States was researching. Just after the new year, on January 31st, the United States confirmed the existence of the Van Allen Belts. The Van Allen Belts are zones of dangerous radiation that surround Earth which could potentially harm astronauts. The solution was to just shield them as much as possible then go through as quickly as possible. They are the strongest at 14,000km from sea level to about 58,000km.
It is named after Van Allen who discovered them with the explorer program. He used a single probe and a Geiger counter. Later explorer missions found a second radiation belt and took more detail data over the next years.
More Soviet Victories With the LUNA Mission- 1959
Next the Soviet Union won a major victory. The LUNA mission was the first to fire a rocket in Earth’s orbit, the first to reach Earth’s escape velocity, the first man-made object to reach a heliocentric orbit, and they discovered solar wind. Although, the mission did not fully succeed the goal was to hit the moon. It missed and the failure was attributed to a 2 degree error in the positioning of a ground based radio antenna.This caused them to completely miss the window where the moon's gravity could capture it and it flew off into space.
The First Humans in Space - 1961
On April 12th 1961, Yuri Gagarin became the first human in space, he was from Soviet Russia. He traveled around the Earth once and the total trip lasted 108 minutes. Nobody was sure how well it would go and only emergency controls were put in the pod. An extra week of provisions were also packed just in case it failed and they had to wait for the orbit to decay. There were no rockets to slow decent and he was subject to 8 times Earth’s gravity and then was ejected and parachuted safely to the ground. However, because he did not land with the ship it did not count as an official spaceflight. They did not let him back into space because they did not wish to risk an important national hero. Sadly, he died in 1968 while testing a plane. When Apollo eleven touched down on the moon they left commemorative medallions of 3 astronauts that had died in the Apollo program and for Yuri Gagarin.
The First Human Spaceflight - 1961
Yuri Gagarin was unable to claim the title as he did not land with the ship, and thus the title for the first human spaceflight goes to the United States. Alan Shepard instead gets the title for his flight on may 5th, and he didn’t even orbit the planet. They basically shot him 190 km into the air and he came back down, it lasted just over 15 minutes.
Venus Flyby -1961
Meanwhile Russia was doing a flyby of Venus with their ship Venera 1. This time Soviet russia failed. The sun-sensor on the spacecraft overheated and wasn’t functioning correctly. No scientific information was ever sent back and communication failed before it got to Venus. The failure was later partly attributed to a timer malfunction on the spaceship. Many problems were fixed for future spacecraft design and these problems did not appear themselves again.
The First Solar Observatory - 1962
On March 7th 1962, the United States created the first solar observatory called OSO-1. It recorded the sun’s UV radiation, Gamma radiation, and X-Rays for two years.
The First Women in Space - 1963
She flew aboard the Vostok 6 on June 16th. She was in space for three days and orbited the planet a total of 48 times. An error in the navigation of the ship caused it to move away from Earth. Technicians on the ground patched the landing software to allow her to land. She sustained a bruise on her face on landing. She never flew again but stayed active in politics, and even carried the olympic flag in the 2014 games.