Homeschool History – The Space Race (1)

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Hello and welcome to “Homeschool History” with Greg Jenner. I'm Greg and I've spent my whole career making history fun on the TV show “Horrible Histories” and more recently on the BBC podcast “You're dead to me”, although that one's for the grown-ups. With everyone being cooped up in the house I thought I'd do a brand new pop-up podcast that delivers a snappy history lesson to educate and entertain the whole family. Who says that homeschooling can't be a bit of fun?

Now, today we are going full rocket-man to learn all about the moon landing or more specifically about the twentieth century Space Race that saw America and Soviet Russia battle it out over who had the better technology.

And listen up because at the end of the episode there will be a quick quiz to see how much you can remember.

All systems go! We have liftoff!

Humans have been fascinated by space for thousands of years and not just because it's very pretty. Since the time of the ancient Babylonians five thousands years ago, astrologists believed that looking at the moon, stars and planets could help predict the future.

And in the twentieth century, space was where many politicians and military experts believed the future would be decided. Whoever could get into space first might become the most powerful country in the world.

But space flight is mega expensive. So it was only Russia (– Hello! –) and America (– Howdy! –) who could really afford to take part in a proper Space Race. But it wasn't just a single race like the hundred meters. Both sides would have to compete in lots of different events before they could really be declared the winner.

(– Winner!)

To understand the Space Race we also need to talk about the so-called “Cold War”. No, it didn't happen in winter and there was no ice cream involved.

“Cold War” just meant that the Soviet Russians – also known as the U.S.S.R. –, and the Americans – also known as the U.S.A. – were bitter rivals with different ways of thinking and different ways of running their countries but they didn't actually fight each other.

They instead got other people to fight for them while they stood behind them, shouting insults and showing off.

(– You're puny, American!)

(– Loser!)

Both sides also built loads of nuclear bombs as a way of threatening the other side but if America and the U.S.S.R. had bombed each other, well, they would've destroyed the whole planet. So they decided to take their fight outside. No, I don't mean it's the car park.

No, into space!

It wasn't quite Star Wars, there were no lightsabers involved. It was more about racing each other to have the best space technology, because that proved that they had the best way of running their country. It was American capitalism (– Yeee-ha!–) versus Soviet communism (– Look at my state-run industry!)

The first event in the Space Race was who could get a satellite into orbit.

In 1957 the Russians won when they launched Sputnik. It was a cute, little ball with a cute, little name but it created an almighty panic in the U.S.A.

After all, if the Russians could get little Sputnik up into space then maybe they could get a bomb up there, too. (– Oh, no!)

Many Americans had thought that the Russians were backwards and poor but the famous journalist John Gunther said that Sputnik destroyed the American idea that the Russians were hardly capable of operating even a tractor.

(Bit rude, some tractors are very complicated.)

The U.S.S.R.'s chief rocket engineer was called Sergei Pavlovich Korolev. For a while the Soviet leaders kept his name secret because they were worried the Americans would try and kill him. He was a mega-brainy weapons expert with a secret identity. Yep, he was basically Iron Man before he joined the Avengers.

Now, putting Sputnik in space was very clever but it didn't actually do anything. It just beeped so that amateur radio users around the world could track its progress. Even school kids could take part as part of Operation Moonwatch. But the beeping was also an enormous … to America.

You know how annoying a beeping microwave can be? Well, this was even worse because it was a constant reminder to the U.S.A. that they had lost the first part of the Space Race. Sputnik was mocking them!

The Americans desperately wanted to outdo the Russians. In December 1957 they tried to launch their own satellite but the rocket exploded during the launch. (Oops!)

This was an embarrassing failure, so it got lots of embarrassing nicknames including Flopnik, Splatnik and Oopsnik, which are all lovely names for your pet hamster.

Annoyed at the failure, the USA started to bounce around some big new ideas about how they could get ahead in the Space Race. And some of the ideas were, well, bonkers frankly.

In 1958 they discussed sending a nuclear bomb to blow up a chunk off the moon. I mean that's just like Bond-villain stuff.

Thankfully the Americans didn't do that and they decided instead they would send something much, much cuter into space. Yes, animals.

Now, the Russians used dogs because they thought that chimps were emotionally unstable. But if you are used to swinging through trees and eating bananas and then found yourself being shot into space I think you'd probably throw a tantrum, too.

Anyway, the first dog in space was called Laika. She was a stray from the streets of Moscow and she launched on November 3rd, 1957. (Who's a good girl?)

Laika became a hero in the Soviet Union. She was on badges and postcards. She even had her own chocolate bar named after her. But sadly she didn't survive the trip.

Luckily other space-dogs did return to earth alive and well. As did Ham and Enos, who were two space-chimps sent up by the Americans.

In fact, the humans training to be astronauts at NASA were rather grumpy about being upstaged by chimps, especially since Enos liked to take off his nappy and throw poo at people.

After animals, the next competition event was to put a human in space and America was confident it would win that one.

Well, it didn't. No, the Russians got there first.

In 1961 Yuri Gagarin was launched into orbit aboard Vostok I. But he was more worried about coming down than going up 'cause he wasn't sure where he was going to land.

So he took a knife and a gun with him in case he ended up landing in the North Pole and was attacked by polar bears.

Thankfully he landed safely back in the Russian countryside, although it didn't go that well. He got tangled up and his parachute got caught in his underpants.

Talk about the ultimate wedgie.

Yuri Gagarin was soon greeted with dancing in the streets of Moscow and a huge parade. He was declared a hero of the Soviet Union. Although initially his dad was not that impressed, muttering: “What kind of hero is he anyway. They sent a dog into space, so why make him a hero?”

Wow, and you thought your family were hard to please.

So, Yuri Gagarin was the first man in space. Surely then Americans could at least put the first woman in space?

Well, no. Again, in 1963 the Russians did that first. And the honour went to Valentina Tereshkova. (– Hello!)

Now, Valentina was a real thrill-seeker, she went sky-diving for a hobby!

And she always had a lovely way with words.

During takeoff she shouted: “Hey, sky, take off your hat, I'm on my way!“

Because Valentina's call sign was “seagull”, the first words she said in space, – in fact the first words that any woman said in space – were: “I am seagull, I am seagull!”

Unfortunately there were no chips for her to steal.

Even though the Americans and some of the Soviet Russians sneered at Valentina Tereshkova because she was a woman, actually lots of women had vital roles in the Space Race and many of them worked as computers.

No, not like that. Computers were people such as Catherine Johnson, whose brilliantly complicated maths calculations were essential for the missions. Without very clever maths, spacecraft would just go floating off into space, never to be seen again.

At the half way point in the Space Race, the U.S.S.R. was doing really well and they soon achieved the next big thing: the first space walk in 1965, although thinking about it you don't really walk in space 'cause there's nothing to stand on. It's more of a sort of space float.

The next year, America tried to catch up a bit. They achieved the first docking of two spacecrafts, which is very important and very difficult to do, so it was impressive but they knew that they needed a really big win.

They were now pouring huge amounts of money, incredible amounts of money, into going for the big one.

“I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth. No single space project in this period will be more impressive to mankind or more important for the long-range exploration of space. And none will be so difficult or expensive to accomplish.”

Now, it wasn't actually the first moon landing because the Russians had already landed a robotic probe on the moon in 1959 and his job was to scatter Soviet flags everywhere. What a litterbug!

But by 1969 it was time for the main event: the moonwalk.

No, not the cool backwards dancing thing, no, actually walking on the surface of the moon.

Sure, the Russians were ahead in the Space Race, they'd done really well so far but it all came down to the moon landing.

If the Space Race was like a game of Quidditch in Harry Potter, then walking on the moon was like catching the Golden Snitch. As soon as you do it, it's game over.

In July 1969, Apollo 11 launched with the whole world watching.

“…4, 3, 2, 1, 0. All engine running. Liftoff! We have a liftoff! Thirty-two minutes past the hour…”

It was crewed by the astronauts Neil Armstrong, Edwin Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins.

Neil Armstrong thought that they only had a fifty-percent chance of coming home alive but amazingly it went really well and on July 20th, 1969, Neil Armstrong was the first person to walk on the moon and he was followed by Buzz Aldrin who was the first person to have a wee on the moon.

Yep, he broke his urine collector and so his left boot filled up with wee. (Ugh!)

Neil Armstrong's first steps on the moon were broadcast live on TV to 650,000,000 people around the world, it was a huge global event. To the general public it felt like the Space Race was over. The Russians may have started out brilliantly but getting to the moon meant that America had won. (– Yahoo!)

After all that excitement, the Apollo 11 astronauts returned home but they then had to self-isolate in a metal trailer for three weeks to make sure that they hadn't brought back any nasty moon bacteria – and they didn't even have iPlayer to watch – boring!

Apart from being locked in a room for a few weeks, the astronauts became mega famous and they then went on tours around America and other parts of the world, particularly Neil and Buzz. In fact, the super cool space ranger Buzz Lightyear from Toy Story is named after Buzz Aldrin.

“To infinity and… well, you know.”

So that brings us to the end of our expedition. Now it's time for a quick-fire quiz to see how much you've learned. Are you ready? OK? 3, 2, 1, blast-off!