In 1966 Lesotho joined the Commonwealth of Nations.
In 1959 The Russian Luna 3 sent back the first images of the far side of the moon.
In 1957 The Russian spacecraft Sputnik 1 became the first craft to orbit Earth.
In 1955 the “cold war” had a new frontier when the two super-powers began the race for supremacy in space in what became known as “the Space Race”. On the 29th of July 1955 the United States of America announced plans to launch an artificial satellite into orbit. On the 2nd of August 1955 the Soviet Union announced plans of their intentions for their own satellites. This marked the beginning of the space race as each power strove to beat the other as a mark of their superiority.
After WWII the United States and the Soviet Union had gathered German missile technology and personnel in order to create their own rockets. In the 1940’s and 50’s attempts were made by both sides to reach space with some success. They had even attempted to send organisms into space but more often than not the rockets and their inhabitants would not survive the journey. On the 22nd of July 1951 Russia successfully sent the first “higher” organisms into space with two dogs, Tsygan and Dezik, both of which survived and were recovered. Neither side had managed an orbital space flight which brought questions of at what point was it an invasion of a nations airspace. With the Cold War fully established the United States didn’t want to risk provoking the Soviet Union. Therefore completely new spacecraft, separate from the military rockets and designed solely for space exploration, had to be used by the US. The Soviet Union were not so worried about provoking the US and continued to use their military rockets for future space exploration.
On the 4th of October 1957 the Soviet Union won the first leg by the successful launch of Sputnik 1 (or fellow traveller 1), the first man made satellite to reach space and orbit the planet. The success of sputnik gave scientist valuable information about our atmosphere which would aid in future space missions. Having lost the first leg to the Soviets, the US was spurned on to get their own rocket into Earth’s Orbit. On the 31st of January 1958 The United States successfully launched their first satellite, Explorer 1, into space.
This was only the first post in the space race and although the USSR were far ahead it was the United States of America that were first to land a human on another celestial body.
On the 16th of July 1969 the United States Luna 11 was launched and on the 20th of July it made the first manned landing on extraterrestrial body. Neil Armstrong became the first Human being to set foot on the surface of the moon six hours after the landing of the Luna Module on the 21st of July 1969.
Both powers made many other successful missions during the space race learning much about our solar system and space travel. On the 15th of July 1975 Both the US Apollo and Soviet Soyuz space craft were launched for a joint mission to test space rescue capabilities. The mission was planned by both governments to mark the end of the space race and a show of more peaceful relations between the two great super-powers. On the 17th of July the two craft met in space and docked. The two commanders, Thomas P. Safford and Aleksei Leonov, then shook hands and exchanged gifts. The two craft remained docked with each other for 44 hours while the two teams performed experiments and socialised together. Despite problems with the American re-entry, which resulted in short hospital stays, both crews landed relatively safely. This was the last Apollo mission by the United States who would shortly start using the Space Shuttle.
