The Space Race (aug 30, 1955 – jul 17, 1975)

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In July 1955, the USA announced their intent to launch small earth circling satellites by the end of 1958 and this was met with a counter-announcement from the USSR who intended to beat the Americans to space. Thus the space race started.
In 1961, Kennedy redirected the course of the space race towards the moon in order to restore American pride after the success of the Russian program and Bay of Pigs disaster and in 1963 he proposed that the two powers work together to achieve this. Although initially rejected, the proposal was being considered at the time of Kennedy's assassination but dropped due to a distrust of Johnson.
In the 70s the race was about space stations - the Salyut and Skylab programs - and on exploring other planets (Venus and Mars). With Detente, the two powers worked together in the space race as well as elsewhere - ending the race with the Apollo-Soyuz test project.

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