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October 4, 2017 was the 60^th anniversary of the launch of Sputnik, an event which marked the beginning of the Space Race and, with it, the beginning of the space age. 

The Space Race captured the imagination of millions of Americans and remains a defining moment in our national history. Today, space technology and exploration have entered a second major era of new capabilities and discoveries. Once again, space occupies an important place in American life and in the popular imagination.

浪花直播鈥檚 Cold War International History Project commemorated the anniversary with a panel discussion featuring expert historians and current space industry professionals who reflected upon the past, present, and future of human space activity.

 See Dr. Siddiqi's introductions to Sputnik and the Soviet ICBM program.

With this public event, the 浪花直播 Center began a multi-year research and seminar program on Space Race history and the foundation that the Space Race set for our present era of space industry and exploration.

This event was an initiative of the Cold War International History Project, a part of the 浪花直播 Center鈥檚 History and Public Policy Program.

Key Quotes

Asif Siddiqi

鈥淟ooking at these [newly released] documents, the first thing that, I think, strikes us is that the Space Race really began even before Sputnik.鈥�

鈥淭he reaction to Sputnik was also very complicated in the Soviet Union, and it wasn鈥檛 necessarily one that paralleled the one in the United States." 

鈥淚f you look at Apollo, it was a great technological achievement. It was amazing 鈥� I think one of the greatest scientific and technical achievements in all human history. But I think that, in many ways, it was really bad for the space program because it set the bar so high that everything else is, by definition, a disappointment 鈥� and it鈥檚 been kind of a disappointment for 40 years.鈥� 

Michael Neufeld

鈥淭he end of the Cold War meant a fundamental transformation of the human space flight reality. It turned everything into a cooperative effort, pretty much, other than the Chinese, who have done a go-it-alone program鈥� Everybody else is in the ISS and it seems like future deep-space exploration will also be cooperative.鈥�

鈥淭here was an enormous acceleration [in U.S. space activity] as caused by the Second World War and then by the Cold War and then鈥� at some point, it鈥檚 going to normalize, and we鈥檙e not always going to have this driving crisis full of geopolitical-military motivation to rush forward with human space flight.鈥�

鈥淭his panel, and the public in general, is fixated on human space flight, yet 90 percent of what we do in space has nothing to do with human space flight. Our whole daily life is now supported by infrastructure in space.鈥�

Clay Mowry

"What you see with a lot of these new space companies鈥� [is that] they want to go to space for different reasons. They want to go to space because they are passionate about it, because they have the resources to be able to do it鈥� because this is something where they thought we should be by this point in time... So we鈥檙e really striving to lower the cost of access to space.鈥�

鈥淒on鈥檛 get me wrong, competition is great. We need competition. If there was only one company, and that was it, that would probably tell you that the market was too small. We need lots of people going, lots of destinations, we need lots of things happening in space. That鈥檚 how we鈥檙e going to grow a space economy鈥� Satellites are one thing, but then we鈥檙e going to have to launch places to go to. It could be a factory in space, it could be a mining operation in space 鈥� you can think of lots of things.鈥�

鈥淲e need to get to a place where two kids in a dorm room can come up with an application that you can put on a platform in space that changes the world. That鈥檚 what you see on the internet today. We don鈥檛 have that in space because access to space is so hard. It costs you hundreds of millions of dollars to set up a satellite, put it on a rocket, and send it up to space鈥� You need all these things and it takes years and years.鈥�

Robert Curbeam

"I鈥檝e seen space become a different race. At first it was one of exploration鈥� People just wanted to go further, they wanted to go into orbit, they wanted to go to the moon, and then we had the dream of going to Mars鈥� Then I saw kind of a shift, and space has become more of an enabler right now, for our time. It鈥檚 a way we get great weather pictures from space鈥� We have GPS, which helps us get turn-by-turn navigation鈥� So, it鈥檚 more of an enabler 鈥� we move information through space. And now we see it slowly but surely turning back to more of an exploration thing.鈥�

鈥淭here is still a measure of national pride in everything we did, and it wasn鈥檛 just limited to the Russian and U.S astronauts, but also the Japanese astronauts, the Canadian astronauts, the European astronauts, and their individual countries. So, yes, it still plays a part 鈥� nationalism still plays a part in what we do and how we do it鈥� but this is a very different time we live in, where we all have to work together to make it happen."

"If you don鈥檛 go to space as a conservationist, you鈥檒l come back as one, beause I鈥檒l tell you what 鈥� it is incredible when you look at the Earth and you see the major changes that don鈥檛 look normal, that [are] manmade.鈥�