Curated reading list
From a single beeping aluminium sphere to telescopes that read the first light of the universe. The journey from Sputnik to the James Webb - a contest of nations that became a project of humankind.
In this journey
01Chapter 1 of 3
1957The Soviets got to space first. America panicked.
On October 4, 1957, the Soviet Union launched Sputnik 1, an 84-kilogram satellite, into orbit from Kazakhstan. For the first time, a human-made object circled the Earth. The achievement shocked the Western world and triggered the Space Race, setting off a competition between superpowers that would define the next fifteen years and reshape global politics, education, and technology.
Which caused
Sputnik's orbital success provoked direct American commitment to the Moon race; President Kennedy explicitly framed Apollo 11 (July 1969) as response to Soviet space dominance initiated by Sputnik (October 1957).
02Chapter 2 of 3
1969An eight-day round trip to a place no human had ever stood - broadcast live to a fifth of humanity
On July 20, 1969, Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed on the Moon, making humanity's first crewed lunar landing. Around 650 million people watched live as Armstrong became the first person to step onto the lunar surface. The mission represented the culmination of the Space Race between the United States and Soviet Union, and remains one of the most watched and celebrated events in human history.
Next
03Chapter 3 of 3
2021NASA launched the James Webb Space Telescope on December 25, 2021, after three decades of development, technical challenges, and budget pressures had repeatedly threatened to kill the project. At $10 billion, it was humanity's most expensive scientific instrument—a powerful infrared observatory designed to see the earliest galaxies in the universe, from a vantage point a million miles from Earth. Within months of reaching its destination, Webb began sending back images that would reshape our understanding of how the cosmos formed.
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