How was the space race started?

Answer 1

It probably started in the 1940s with the defection to the West of ex-Nazi scientist Werner Von Braun. He denounced his country because of Nazi atrocities, and defected to the USA. Braun was the genius brains behind the German V2 rocket system for WW2 missile launch and his defection greatly annoyed the Communist Soviets as they wished to have the same technology as their now enemy, the Capitalist West. This was the beginning of not only the space race but also the arms race where each side stockpiled nuclear weapons - enough to wipe each other off the face of the world several times over. The space race thus started from a military initiative, as, whoever conquered space would also conquer surveillance from space, espionage and counter espionage. The race began in earnest in 1957 when the Soviet Union launched the first man-made satellite Sputnik 1, the Americans only managing their first satellite a little later. And so it continued: the Soviets launched the first human in space, the Americans the first human in orbit. The Soviets staged the first space-walk, and the US a spacewalk that was longer. The Soviets only really conceded their defeat in the race in 1969 when the Americans were first to land on the moon. Thereafter the Soviets concentrated on unmanned probes and the development of a semi-permanent space station in Mir. Although ridiculed by the West for its arcane technology, the Mir was incredibly reliable, and lasted in space several times over its original planned lifetime, and pushed the boundaries of the understanding of space, and especially how space travel affects humans in the long term, more than any other space initiative.