Military+and+Space



Military and Space   By: Griffin  K.   The Cold War between the United States  and the Soviet Union  was marked by secrecy and a strive for military superiority. The space race was a direct result the Cold War. It began with the Soviet Unions attempt to make intercontinental missiles and transformed into a race for greater technology. At this time in history there was no greater technology than going to space and creating communication satellites or space stations. This then gave born to the idea that there could be weapons that could be controlled by satellites in space. There was no doubt that military technology could be increased tenfold with the help of the ‘final frontier”. Even before the launching of Sputnik into space there had already been plans for reconnaissance satellites that could take photo imaging of enemy bases and lands. The Soviets were the first to send a photo imaging satellite into space with the intention of taking photos of the Earth, the name of their spy satellite was Zenit. This satellite soon became obsolete with the introduction of the United States Discoverer series which lasted for almost ten years. The Discoverer series was the first of its kind in that it had two intentions of providing information on space and also spying on the Soviet Union . This type of military influenced space race continued with several other military operated space programs from both the United States  and the <span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51)">Soviet Union <span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51)">. This military influenced space race is a perfect example of the Cold War because for both the <span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51)">United States <span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51)"> and the <span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51)">Soviet Union <span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51)"> most of the military space experiments didn’t work. They were mostly designed to scare the other nation and this type of nationalism steamed into a very serious arms race. There was a supersonic intercontinental space missile program for both the <span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51)">United States <span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51)"> and the <span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51)">Soviet Union <span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51)"> in which neither worked. This is just one of the many examples that each nation tried to take space travel into a new form of military strategy. However as I mentioned these programs hardly ever worked and most of the time these programs were a gigantic waste of revenue. The <span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51)">United States <span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51)"> was smart in this aspect because they made plans to make these military influenced space programs but hardly ever followed through because they knew they would never work. They just used the intention of the military space programs to provoke the <span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51)">Soviet Union <span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51)"> into keeping up with them. However the <span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51)">Soviet Union <span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51)"> didn’t have hardly as much money as the <span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51)">United States <span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51)"> so they couldn’t afford to continue wasting valuable revenue on hopeless projects. This tactic was continued by the <span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51)">United States <span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51)"> and eventually leads to the economic destruction of the <span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51)">Soviet Union <span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51)">.