The president has said the nation will land a man on the moon, but the nation was struggling just to put an astronaut in orbit.

Photos: https://www.spaceracehistorypodcast.com/post/episode-11-racing-for-orbits

Yuri Gagarin makes it to space first. But the Americans aren't far behind.

Photos: https://www.spaceracehistorypodcast.com/post/episode-9-vostok-1

Project Mercury encounters its darkest hour in the latter half of 1960 under the scrutiny of a presidential election. 

Photos: https://www.spaceracehistorypodcast.com/post/episode-8-man-rating-mercury

Sergei Korolev advances toward a manned spaceflight with the Object K spacecraft.

Photos: https://www.spaceracehistorypodcast.com/post/episode-7-korabl-sputnik

NASA begins to focus of achieving the first manned spaceflight.

Photos: https://www.spaceracehistorypodcast.com/post/episode-6-project-mercury

After Sputnik, the United States centralized its space program under a single institution, NASA. The Soviet space program on the other hand became decentralized and less coherent.

Photos: https://www.spaceracehistorypodcast.com/post/episode-5-soviet-space-program

This episode discusses the creation if NASA, its initial facilities, and its initial tasks.

Photos: https://www.spaceracehistorypodcast.com/post/episode-4-nasa

The United States tries to reach the moon first with lunar probes under the Pioneer program. But the Soviet Union's Luna probes get there first.

Photos: https://www.spaceracehistorypodcast.com/post/episode-3-shooting-for-the-moon

The Soviet Union defied expectations to launch the first satellite before the United States. This episode explains how that happened.

Photos: https://www.spaceracehistorypodcast.com/post/episode-2-sputnik