Good afternoon everyone, I am Sofia Ortiz and I’d like to welcome you to this presentation based on my undergraduate thesis which focuses on a particular aspect of the Cold War, that is the origins of the space race between the Soviets and Americans, and the incredible flight of the Soviet ”first swallow” in the cosmos, Jurij Alekseevič Gagarin.
There are three points which I’d like to make.
So, let’s look now at the historical and political context.
This challenge was accepted by Khrushchev’s Soviet Union, so much so that in 1957 it was put Sputnik 1, the first artificial satellite in history, into orbit, thus marking the beginning of the space age.
A month later Sputnik 2 was launched, which went down in history for being the first satellite to have carried a living being, the dog Laika, inside it.
The competition between the USA and the USSR continued with the launch of capsules, which in the years of competition took the name of ”war of the satellites”.
Let’s move on to the famous space expedition Vostok 1.
Despite the excellent recovery in the race by the Americans, on April 12, 1961, the United States saw the possibility of becoming the first to send man into space fade before them.
That morning, yet another capsule powered by the R-7 Semiorka intercontinental ballistic rocket, named Vostok 1 with cosmonaut Juri Gagarin on board, was launched from the Baikonur cosmodrome.
The legendary flight lasted just 108 minutes, time in which Gagarin had the opportunity to admire space for the first time.
The mission was a triumph for the Soviet space program and Gagarin became a national hero as well as a worldwide celebrity.
Now let’s see the image of Gagarin.
Celebrated by the Soviet propaganda of the time as a new man of socialism, the cosmonaut from humble origins had transformed into the face representing the collective spirit and goals of an entire nation.
Unfortunately, he could not handle the fame, so much so that on several occasions he gave scandal to himself for his habits such as those of drinking and seducing women.
He died in March 1968 due to an accident aboard a small MiG-15 fighter during a training flight.
To conclude, even if this initial advantage in the space race was later reversed with the first moon landing in 1969 by the Americans, the great Soviet mission had demonstrated to the world the greatness of man’s ability, drastically influencing the course of history: for the first time , he had been able to go beyond the borders of the Earth and send his own kind into space, thus moving the Cold War into a new dimension.
Thank you for your attention.
April 2023
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