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The Space Race
Although the space race was originally a competition between two Cold War foes,it ultimately resulted in many benefits for the people of the Earth. Find information on the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo, and Soviet space programs,...
Digital History
Digital History: The Space Race
In October 1957, the Soviet Union launched Sputnik 1, the world's first artificial satellite. The 184-pound, 22.5-inch sphere orbited the earth once every 96 minutes. Sputnik transmitted radio signals for 21 days and later burned up in...
TED Talks
Ted: Ted Ed: Who Won the Space Race?
Jeff Steers describes the history and benefits of the space race between the United States and the Soviet Union. [4:47]
CommonLit
Common Lit: The Space Race Is Over
A learning module that begins with "The Space Race Is Over" by Paul Kingsnorth, accompanied by guided reading questions, assessment questions, and discussion questions. The text can be printed as a PDF or assigned online through free...
White House Historical Association
White House Historical Association: John F. Kennedy and the Space Race
A look at John F. Kennedy's goal for the United States, which was to send the first man to the Moon and to bring him safely back to Earth. Informational text and lesson plan for students in grades 9-12.
Digital Public Library of America
Dpla: Space Race
This set focuses on the Space Race during the mid-1950s and 1960s and examines the impact of the Space Race today. Includes a teacher's guide.
Khan Academy
Khan Academy: The Start of the Space Race
Looks at the USSR's launch of Sputnik and the galvanizing effect it had on America's motivation to fund aerospace research. NASA was soon formed and more funding was put in place for public education in the sciences and math.
Khan Academy
Khan Academy: Us History: 1945 1980: The Start of the Space Race
Learn about the launch of Sputnik and the establishment of NASA.
NASA
Nasa: Sputnik and the Dawn of the Space Age
This site from NASA describes the impact that Sputnik had in triggering the space race.
ABCya
Ab Cya: Multiplication Space Race
Multiplication Space Race is an educational multi-player racing activity for kids to practice multiplication. Students race against each other to capture the Space Race Cup! How quickly the student correctly answers the multiplication...
Siteseen
Siteseen: American Historama: The Space Race
Provides interesting facts and an overview of the Cold War Space Race (1957-1975), a competition in the exploration of space between the United States and the Soviet Union.
Smithsonian Institution
Smithsonian Education: Walk on the Moon
This online lesson helps students explore primary sources, including photographs and audio and video recordings, in order to learn about the Apollo crew and spacecraft, the history of the space race, and the incredible technological...
Georgia Department of Education
Ga Virtual Learning: Contemporary Nonfiction: Jfk Speech
This lesson focuses on John F. Kennedy's speech, "We Choose to go to the Moon," delivered at Rice University on September 12, 1962. It features links to JFK's biography and Wikipedia entry, the National Geographic: "Moon 101" video, the...
US National Archives
Docsteach: Landing a Man on the Moon: President Nixon and the Apollo Program
This activity chronicles the Space Race from President Kennedy's call to land on the Moon until Apollo 17 - the last lunar Mission, placing particular emphasis on President Nixon's role in the space program.
A&E Television
History.com: The Soviet Response to the Moon Landing? Denial There Was a Moon Race at All
Until 1989, Russians claimed they were not trying to reach the Moon first and that the U.S. was in "a one-nation race." Until 1989, a group of American aerospace engineers went to Moscow and finally saw the Soviets' failed lunar-landing...
NASA
Nasa: Sputnik and the Origins of the Space Age
NASA provides a paper providing a background to the Sputnik launch and the U.S. response.
Digital Public Library of America
Dpla: Race to the Moon
In 1955, the US and the USSR each announced plans to launch a satellite into orbit. Thus began the race to the moon. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, the American space program and its new classes of astronauts achieved breakthroughs in...
Arcademics
Arcademics: Multiplication Space Race
Select the correct product for the multiplication problem to advance your spaceship.
Smithsonian Institution
Smithsonian Education: Apollo 11 Walking on the Moon
Check out this interactive website about the space race.
Ducksters
Ducksters: The Cold War for Kids: Space Race
Kids learn the history of the Space Race during the Cold War. A race between the United States and the Soviet Union to put a man on the Moon.
Library of Congress
Loc: America's Story: Johnson's Task, Unify Space Program
Russia was ahead in the "space race" in 1961. In this article, the Library of Congress discusses how President Kennedy assigned Lyndon Johnson the task of uniting the different parts of the U.S. space program into NASA.
A&E Television
History.com: The Space Race: Interactive Universe
A virtual journey through space offers photos and facts about Earth and its neighboring planets, comets, other celestial bodies of the Solar System, and the Milky Way and Andromeda galaxies.
Curated OER
National Park Service: America's Space Program Exploring a New Frontier
This site includes a lesson plan for teachers to use when teaching about America's space program. Also included is the history of the space program, maps, readings, images of the space program, and benefits that resulted from space...
BBC
Bbc: Space Race
There are galaxies far, far away, but just how big is our own solar system? Scroll through this interactive to quickly observe just how much we know and have learned about our solar system.