Rockets
and
Satellites
Fascinating Facts

• Two dogs, Belka and Strelka, were aboard the Soviets’
Sputnik 5 in 1960. They returned unharmed after a day in
orbit. Strelka later gave birth to six healthy puppies. One
puppy was given as a gift to President Kennedy.

• Depending on where you are on Earth, where the
spacecraft is, and the time of day, you can see the
International Space Station without a telescope.

• Much of the Internet began as a Cold War project to
create a communication system that could survive a
nuclear attack.

Genre

Nonfiction

Comprehension Skill

Cause and Effect

Text Features

• Sidebars
• Captions

Scott Foresman Social Studies

ISBN 0-328-14916-0

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by Maureen Blaney Flietner


In this book you will read about how two countries with
different political beliefs competed in a race to be not
only the most powerful country in the world but to be
the most powerful country in space. The space race
is over now, but the interest in space and how it can
help people continues even today.

Vocabulary

Rockets
and
Satellites

Write to It!

In some ways the arms race led to the space race. Do
you think the results were worth it? In one paragraph
describe the benefits and challenges of the space race.
In another paragraph, state your opinion about the
effects of the space race.
Write your paragraphs on a separate sheet of paper.


communism
ideology
propaganda
arms race
satellite
space race
Photographs
Every effort has been made to secure permission and provide appropriate credit for photographic material. The publisher deeply
regrets any omission and pledges to correct errors called to its attention in subsequent editions.

by Maureen Blaney Flietner

Unless otherwise acknowledged, all photographs are the property of Scott Foresman, a division of Pearson Education.
Photo locators denoted as follows: Top (T), Center (C), Bottom (B), Left (L), Right (R), Background (Bkgd)

ISBN: 0-328-14916-0
Copyright © Pearson Education, Inc.
All Rights Reserved. Printed in the United States of America. This publication is protected
by Copyright, and permission should be obtained from the publisher prior to any prohibited
reproduction, storage in a retrieval system, or transmission in any form by any means,
electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or likewise. For information regarding
permission(s), write to: Permissions Department, Scott Foresman, 1900 East Lake Avenue,
Glenview, Illinois 60025.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 V0G1 14 13 12 11 10 09 08 07 06 05

Opener: ©Mark Wade, Corbis
2 ©Getty Images
3 ©Corbis
4 ©Time Life Pictures/Getty Images

Editorial Offices: Glenview, Illinois • Parsippany, New Jersey • New York, New York
5 ©Peter Turnley/Corbis
6 ©Mark Wade
Sales Offices: Needham, Massachusetts • Duluth, Georgia • Glenview, Illinois
7 ©Mark Wade
Coppell, Texas • Sacramento, California • Mesa, Arizona
9 ©Bettmann/Corbis
10 ©Novosti/Photo Researchers, Inc.
11 ©Corbis
13 ©NASA Human Space Flight Gallery
14 (B) ©Bob Winsett/Index Stock Imagery, (T) ©Royalty-Free/Corbis, (C) ©Stephen Marks/Getty Images
15 (L, R) ©Getty Images


Can a rocket be a missile?
The V-1 was the world’s
first cruise missile.

Weapons of War
To defeat their enemies in World War II, the United States
and its allies had to fight on the same side as the Soviet Union.
Normally, the United States would not have wanted to be on the
same side as the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union had a harsh
leader named Joseph Stalin and operated under a form of
government called communism. Under that system, people have
little freedom. The government owns all the businesses and all
the land. That ideology is very different from what Americans
believe. Americans believe in many freedoms.
New kinds of weapons had been used in World War II, and the
Germans had made some powerful weapons. When the war ended,

the Americans and Soviets wanted to learn about Germany’s
weapons. They were very interested in two of them—the V-1 and
V-2 missiles.
They learned that the V-1, or “buzz bomb,” was the world’s first
cruise missile. The V-1 was called a buzz bomb because it made
a buzzing sound while it flew. A cruise missile is like a flying
bomb with wings and an engine. It could guide itself to a target.

2

A rocket is a type of engine that can move. How does
it work? The engine has fuel that burns. The burning fuel
makes exhaust gases that push out in one direction. When
the gases push out, they push the rocket in the other
direction. Here is another way to picture it. When you blow
up a balloon and let it go, it shoots forward as the air comes
out the back.
A rocket is a missile when it carries a weapon.
A missile is ballistic when it first uses its engine to shoot
up into the sky. After it reaches the sky and flies its flight
path, its engine turns off. Then, because of gravity, it falls
until it reaches its target.
A rocket is a launch vehicle when it carries something
like a spacecraft into space.

The V-2 missile also was a new
weapon called a ballistic missile.
As a ballistic missile it was powered
for a short time by its own engine
and then fell because of gravity. It

was so powerful that it could send
one ton of explosives more than
150 miles in five minutes.

A captured V-2 missile was tested in the
United States after World War II.

3


When World War II ended, the United States wanted to help
both its allies and its former enemies rebuild. The United States
wanted all countries to become free and strong. However, the
Soviet Union did not want that. It worried about being attacked.
It thought that if Germany and other countries became strong,
they might attack it. The
Soviet Union’s leader, Stalin,
decided to force the countries
it controlled to accept
communism. The people in
those countries lost their
freedom.
Stalin also tried to take over
the western part of Berlin,
the part that the United
States and its allies controlled
after the war. Stalin set up a
blockade so that no one could
get in or out on the roads or
by train. Stalin thought this

blockade would let him take
control of the whole city and
Americans and their allies began
bring it under communism.
an airlift to fly food and supplies
Instead, the Americans and
into West Berlin.
their allies began an airlift to
fly food and supplies into West Berlin. Finally, Stalin ended the
blockade. It had not worked, and West Berlin stayed free.
The United States did not like the blockade and it did not like how
the Soviet Union was spreading communism. The United States
and its allies decided to set up a group called the North Atlantic
Treaty Organization (NATO). The members of this organization
agreed to help each other if the Soviet Union attacked any of them.

When World War II ended, the Cold War had started. On one
side was the United States, and on the other side was the Soviet
Union. They were the two most powerful countries in the world,
and now they were enemies. The war was called a “cold” war
because it was not a time of actual fighting between the United
States and the Soviet Union. Instead, it was a time when fights
between the two different beliefs about freedom took place in
other parts of the world.
It also was a time of propaganda. People in communist
countries knew only what their leaders told them. The Soviets
told their people that the United States was poor and that the
American system did not work. The Soviets held big parades with
tanks and weapons to show the world how powerful they were.
The Americans used radio programs to let the people in the

communist countries know that the free world still remembered
them. The radio shows told them that the American way of life
was good and that there was hope.

The Soviets held big parades to show the world how powerful they were.

4

5


Weapons and More Weapons
In the United States, scientists learned more
about rockets and missiles. They had help from
a former German scientist named Wernher von
Braun. The Americans made a powerful rocket
called Viking. The Soviets were learning too. One
missile they built was called the R-5. It could
travel up to 750 miles.
Each side was busy making weapons, or arms.
It had become an arms race. Each side wanted
to have powerful weapons, and more weapons,
than the other.
The Cold War was dividing the world. Countries
like the Soviet Union were trying to spread
communism throughout the world. The United
States had to help other countries stop the
communists.
While the Cold War did not lead to fighting
between the United States and the Soviet Union,

it did lead to war in places such as Korea and
Vietnam. In those countries the United States
helped those who wanted to be free, and the
Soviets helped those who wanted to spread
communism.

The R-5 missile could travel up to 750 miles.

6

The Soviets built the R-7 missile, which was the first ICBM.

The Race into Space
In 1952 scientists called on countries to develop satellites, or
objects that could orbit, or circle, Earth. The scientists wanted to
use the satellites to get information to make a map of Earth. The
United States said it would build a satellite. It began a program
called Vanguard.
In August 1957 the Soviets surprised the world. They tested a
missile called an R-7. The R-7 was the first ballistic missile that
could go between continents—a very long distance. It was called
an intercontinental ballistic missile, or ICBM.
The Soviet missile was powerful enough to send a nuclear bomb
all the way to the United States or carry a spacecraft into orbit.
A few months later, the Soviet Union surprised the world again
and launched the world’s first satellite into space. It was called
Sputnik 1. Sputnik 1 was only about the size of a basketball,
but at 183 pounds, it weighed much more than the 3½ pound
Vanguard satellite the United States had planned to launch. The
space race had begun.


7


Dog in Orbit
The United States had been surprised, but now it was worried.
The Soviet Union had achieved a lot of firsts. It had an ICBM and
the world’s first satellite. People wondered if the Soviet Union was
more powerful than the United States.
A new age had begun. People started saying that it was the
space age.
It was not long before the Soviet Union shocked the world again.
On November 3, 1957, the Soviet Union launched Sputnik 2. This
spacecraft weighed much more than Sputnik 1. It also carried a
passenger, a little dog named Laika.
The United States had trouble getting its Vanguard satellite to
work. It started another satellite program called Explorer, which
was a success. The United States launched its first satellite, called
Explorer I. The satellite even had scientific tools on board. Finally,
on its fourth try, Vanguard 1 was launched. The United States had
caught up to the Soviet Union in the space race.
The United States decided to do more and created the
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in 1958.
NASA would lead the American space exploration programs.
The Soviets and Americans continued their work. Missiles
became more powerful and could carry more weapons. In the
United States, military space programs were secret, but civilian
space activities were open for all to see. In the Soviet Union
all space programs were a secret. Only when the Soviets had a
success did anyone learn about it.


Laika was a small Russian stray dog that ended
up being the world’s first space traveler. She was put
aboard Sputnik 2 so Soviet scientists could study a living
being in orbit. Laika proved that a living passenger
could survive being launched into space. Her trip
made her one of the most famous dogs in the world.
Her picture has been on postage stamps in different
countries, and songs have been written about her.

Laika was the first living being in space.

8

9


The Soviet Union kept achieving firsts. In 1959 the Soviet Union
sent the first spacecraft around the Moon. The spacecraft took
pictures of the far side of the Moon and sent them back to Earth.
On April 12, 1961, the Soviets gave the world a very big surprise
by sending the first person into space. Yuri Gagarin traveled on a
Soviet spacecraft around Earth and back. The Soviets called their
space travelers cosmonauts.
A month later, Alan Shepard became the first American to journey
into space. His spacecraft was called Freedom 7. Americans called
their space travelers astronauts. Several months later, astronaut
John Glenn became the first American to orbit Earth.

Alan Shepard became the first American to journey into space.


The Space Race Changes

Yuri Gagarin was the first
person sent into space.

10

The space race continued, but where was the finish line? On
May 25, 1961, President John F. Kennedy announced America’s
goal in the space race. The goal was to land a man on the Moon
by the end of the 1960s. The space race was now a race to
the Moon.
More study was done, and ideas were tested. In the United
States, the Project Mercury program studied how humans could
live in space. The Project Gemini program found out how two
astronauts could work together in one spacecraft.
Next came the Project Apollo program. With the Apollo program,
the United States studied how to land people on the Moon and
then bring them safely back to Earth.

11


Finally, the finish line of the space race was near. The
United States sent Apollo 11 to the Moon.
On July 20, 1969, astronaut Neil Armstrong stepped
off the landing craft and onto the surface of the Moon. His
famous words were: “That’s one small step for man, one
giant leap for mankind.”

Soon astronaut Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin joined him on
the Moon’s surface. The two men collected moon rocks
to bring back to Earth for study. They then returned to
the spacecraft Columbia, piloted by Michael Collins, and
headed back to Earth.
The Americans had won the race by putting a man on
the Moon before the Soviets.
The space race was over, so the Soviets started to work
on other space projects. They launched the world’s first
space station, called Salyut, into orbit. Later, Salyut was
replaced by another space station named Mir.
The United States made its last trip to the Moon in 1972.
Then it, too, worked on other space projects. NASA built
a reusable space vehicle called the space shuttle. It
launched a space station called Skylab. Skylab showed
Americans that people could live and work in space for
months at a time.
When the Soviet Union collapsed in the 1990s, the
Cold War ended. The United States now started working
with Russia, the country that had been the largest in the
Soviet Union, on space projects. The former enemies now
worked together.
Astronaut Neil Armstrong took this photo of Edwin
“Buzz” Aldrin on the Moon.

12

13



Space Lessons
Working on projects for space was different than working on
projects here on Earth. Scientists had to learn new ways to do
things. They had to make new tools and new materials. Those
new products now help people in their everyday lives. Here are
just a few examples.

television satellite dish
Tools NASA made to correct errors from
spacecraft signals now clear up pictures or
sound in television signals from satellites.

smoke detector
Technology used to detect poisonous
gases in Skylab now lets people know if
there are fires in buildings and homes.

firefighter suits
Fabric used in space suits to protect the
astronauts now protects firefighters.

14

computer joystick
The stick you may use to run
your computer games comes from
technology scientists developed when
they looked for ways to control robots
exploring the Moon’s surface.


ear thermometer
The ear thermometer was
created from technology
scientists developed when
they were trying to detect
new stars.

Many benefits have come from the space race and today’s
space projects. Even more benefits could be ahead. Today, the
largest international science project in history is taking place in
space. The United States is working together with many other
countries on the International Space Station.
With the International Space Station, there will be many chances
for ideas to be tested. People will look for new and better ways to
do things. Scientists can watch for changes in the planet we
all share.
NASA continues its space work for the United States. It sends
out spacecraft to explore our solar system. The United States
also has plans for more human space exploration. NASA plans
to send humans back to the Moon someday. It may even send
humans to Mars . . . and beyond.

15


In this book you will read about how two countries with
Glossary

Write to It!


different political beliefs competed in a race to be not
arms race a race to build more and better weapons than the
only the most powerful country in the world but to be
enemy has
the most powerful country in space. The space race
communism
a political
and
economic
system
in which
is over now,
but the
interest
in space
and
how itthe
can
government
owns
all
businesses
and
land
help people continues even today.
ideology a set of beliefs

In some ways the arms race led to the space race. Do
you think the results were worth it? In one paragraph
describe the benefits and challenges of the space race.

In another paragraph, state your opinion about the
effects of the space race.

propaganda a systematic effort to spread opinions or beliefs

Vocabulary

Write your paragraphs on a separate sheet of paper.

satellite an object that is sent
into space and orbits Earth
communism
space race a race between the
United States and the Soviet
ideology
Union to explore outer space during the Cold War
propaganda
arms race
satellite
space race
Photographs
Every effort has been made to secure permission and provide appropriate credit for photographic material. The publisher deeply
regrets any omission and pledges to correct errors called to its attention in subsequent editions.
Unless otherwise acknowledged, all photographs are the property of Scott Foresman, a division of Pearson Education.
Photo locators denoted as follows: Top (T), Center (C), Bottom (B), Left (L), Right (R), Background (Bkgd)

ISBN: 0-328-14916-0
Copyright © Pearson Education, Inc.
All Rights Reserved. Printed in the United States of America. This publication is protected
by Copyright, and permission should be obtained from the publisher prior to any prohibited

reproduction, storage in a retrieval system, or transmission in any form by any means,
electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or likewise. For information regarding
permission(s), write to: Permissions Department, Scott Foresman, 1900 East Lake Avenue,
Glenview, Illinois 60025.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 V0G1 14 13 12 11 10 09 08 07 06 05

16

Opener: ©Mark Wade, Corbis
2 ©Getty Images
3 ©Corbis
4 ©Time Life Pictures/Getty Images
5 ©Peter Turnley/Corbis
6 ©Mark Wade
7 ©Mark Wade
9 ©Bettmann/Corbis
10 ©Novosti/Photo Researchers, Inc.
11 ©Corbis
13 ©NASA Human Space Flight Gallery
14 (B) ©Bob Winsett/Index Stock Imagery, (T) ©Royalty-Free/Corbis, (C) ©Stephen Marks/Getty Images
15 (L, R) ©Getty Images