n orbital mission in Vostok I (Raibchikov, 1971). A month later, NASA astronaut Alan Shepard became the first American in space. He made a brief suborbital flight. On February 29, 1962, astronaut John Glenn became the first American to orbit the planet. On May 25, 1961, President Kennedy set the national goal of landing astronauts on the moon and returning them safely to Earth within the decade (VonBraun, 1975). The Soviets denied that they had any plans to put humans on the moon, but historical documents have proved this wrong. Also, their Luna launches proved that they had an interest in the moon. On September 13, 1959, the USSRs Luna II crashed on the moon carrying a copy of the Soviet Coat of Arms. Then on October 4, 1959, Luna III set out to orbit the moon and photographed seventy percent of its farside (Raibchov, 1971). The last great first in space exploration came on July 20, 1969 when Neil Armstrong and his crew on Apollo 9 reached the moon. It was difficult to tell which nation was really ahead in the space race; each country racked up a series of important firsts. The moon marked the finish line for the space race and once that was conquered there was little left to explore with the current technologies. But the space programs continue and with them bring us new technologies and products. The Cold War although was still in its prime, but with the end of the space race, closed one of the sources from which it was fueled.Another aspect of the Cold War that took to the skies was the race for supersonic commercial transportation. The year was 1962 and with the sound barrier already broken by American Chuck Yeager, France and Britain had joined forces to be the first countries to have supersonic passenger jets (www.pbs.org). But the U.S. had its eyes on advancing the world of aviation as well, so they announced their entry into the competition. Russia at this point could not imagine or allow the West to get ahead of ...
