The Space Race

Soviet The Soviet Union gained prestige by placing the first man in space, regardless of whether or not Soviet technology was in fact superior to American. All that mattered was perception, and with Sputnik, the Soviets created the impression that they had eclipsed the Americans in terms of the space race. Thus it became essential in the eyes of the Kennedy administration to "leapfrog" them. The space race was important because outdoing the Soviet Union would not only give international prestige to the US, but would also help to bolster Kennedy's image within America itself.

The difference between the Kennedy and Eisenhower administrations if quite evident through the space program. Eisenhower was reluctant to spend money and did not have faith in the central government to manage large programs without being wasteful. Kennedy on the other hand felt that government spending was positive and that it in fact aided the economy. Thus Kennedy was far more willing to invest in large government projects such as the space program. Kennedy quickly realized the political opportunities that the space race afforded him and was willing to spend money.

There was the question of whether putting a man on the moon was a waste of resources. The Apollo missions were very significant diplomatically and symbolically, but they did not progress science as much considering the cost of the missions. It may have been better for research to invest in other scientific projects to advance our knowledge of space. But the Apollo missions were only a waste of resources if their main purpose was to advance science, and at least at the top, that was not necessarily the main intention. The purpose of these missions was to boost the prestige of the US government and the current administration in the eyes of the internationalo communities and the US citizens. And in this sense it was successful.

NASA was made the main vessel of US space policy as opposed to the Air Force, but this did not mean that the United States government was not concerned with the military applications of space. The US government was concerned that the space program always appeared to have peaceful intentions and that it was run by civilians. Yet the reality of it was the the US government was always conscious of how the space program could give the US a military advantage and often sought to exploit that.

These same intentions is what made the Apollo program obsolete by the 80s. Nixon was able to end the program so easily because the initial motivations for the program has ceased to exist or were no longer fulfilled by the space program.