Significant events from the timeline of the Space Race from 1957 through 1975 are plotted along the y-axis in order of relative difficulty of those accomplishments. All human spaceflight programs are graphed along with leading events for unpiloted probes. It is all put in context of government leadership and selected technological, social and military events of that period as they happened under the shadow of the nuclear arms race.<br><br><p>In the left margin is an inset commemorating the Soviets winning the race to get a satellite into orbit, Sputnik 1. In the right margin is the launch of Apollo 8 where the USA won the race to send astronauts to the Moon.  The two photos give a skewed sense of scale.  In actuality, the Sputnik launcher was one-quarter the height of the Saturn V rocket (26.36%)<sup id="cite_ref-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-1">[1]</a></sup>  If the entire Sputnik 1 rocket had been mounted atop the 1st &amp; 2nd stages of the Saturn V, the Apollo 8 rocket would still be about 5 stories taller (47.6 feet).<sup id="cite_ref-2" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-2">[2]</a></sup>  By another measure of comparison, the Saturn V had more than seven times the thrust that Sputnik's R-7 booster had (34,020kN vs 4,792kN).<br><br></p>
See <a href="//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Space_Race_1957-1975.jpg" title="File:Space Race 1957-1975.jpg">source image</a> for more detailed description.
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<a href="//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Space_Race_1957-1975.jpg" title="File:Space Race 1957-1975.jpg">Space Race 1957-1975.jpg</a>