Digital Public Library of America
Dpla: Space Race
This set focuses on the Space Race during the mid-1950s and 1960s and examines the impact of the Space Race today. Includes a teacher's guide.
TED Talks
Ted: Ted Ed: Who Won the Space Race?
Jeff Steers describes the history and benefits of the space race between the United States and the Soviet Union. [4:47]
BBC
Bbc: Space Race
There are galaxies far, far away, but just how big is our own solar system? Scroll through this interactive to quickly observe just how much we know and have learned about our solar system.
Siteseen
Siteseen: American Historama: The Space Race
Provides interesting facts and an overview of the Cold War Space Race (1957-1975), a competition in the exploration of space between the United States and the Soviet Union.
Digital Public Library of America
Dpla: Race to the Moon
In 1955, the US and the USSR each announced plans to launch a satellite into orbit. Thus began the race to the moon. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, the American space program and its new classes of astronauts achieved breakthroughs in...
Ducksters
Ducksters: The Cold War for Kids: Space Race
Kids learn the history of the Space Race during the Cold War. A race between the United States and the Soviet Union to put a man on the Moon.
NASA
Nasa, Human Space Flight: Apollo 11 Mission
The story of the Apollo 11 lunar landing is told with dramatic details, pictures, and mission highlights.
NASA
Nasa: Aeronautical/astronautical Events of January March 1961
This NASA site offers a timeline of significant events in the space race during this brief frame of time, with some discussion of the prestige involved.
A&E Television
History.com: Why the Air Force Almost Blasted the Moon With an H Bomb
Detonating a thermonuclear weapon on the moon? It sounds like the bizarre scheme of a deranged comic-book villain -- not a project initiated inside the U.S. government. But in 1958, as the Cold War space race was heating up, the U.S. Air...
TED Talks
Ted: Ted Ed: A Trip Through Space to Calculate Distance
Imagine two aliens racing across outer space to their moon. Who can we deem the fastest alien? With DIRT- or the equation Distance = Rate x Time- we can calculate their rates, using the distance they traveled and the time they took....
Arcademics
Arcademics: Space Jaunt
Multiplayer math game where alien spaceships race by rounding whole numbers to the nearest 10's place value.
The Newberry Library
The Newberry: Chicago Defined: Space and Place, Homes and Journeys
Learning module examines how writers and artists have portrayed the city of Chicago as well as the response to the city's changing population and character during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Primary sources and questions for...
History Link
History Link: Century 21: The Seattle World's Fair Part 1
Captivating site chronicles the history of the 1962 World's Fair in Seattle, also known as Century 21. This event gave Seattle it's most well-known landmark, the Space Needle. Discusses the uphill battle to get a World's Fair in Seattle...
NASA
Nasa: Pre and Post Sputnik Public Attitudes
This site from NASA provides a paper that describes the public's attitiude before and after the launch of the Sputnik satellite. Originally presented as part of the "U.S. President's Committee on Information Activities Abroad."
University of Wisconsin
The Why Files: Sputnik's Legacy
Easy-to-read history of the Soviet satellite launch that began the race for space between the Soviet Union and United States. Click on "next" at the bottom to advance to the next page.
Smithsonian Institution
National Museum of American History: Teaching Math & Science in Age of Sputnik
Why did the Soviet Union's launch of Sputnik throw the fields of mathematics and science into tremendous demand in the United States? Find the many ways this revolutionary event impacted children from the 1950s to become the...
History of American Wars
History of American Wars: Cold War History: Kennedy and Johnson 1961 1969
Describes the events of the Cold War during the presidencies of John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson.
History Link
History Link: The 1962 Seattle World's Fair
A history of the Seattle World's Fair held in 1962. Includes in-depth details of exhibits and attendees, including Prince Phillip of England and Elvis Presley. Wonderful pictures of many of the fair's promotional posters.
Siteseen
Siteseen: American Historama: Sputnik
Detailed information on Sputnik, the first artificial satellite to orbit Earth, launched by the USSR on October 4, 1957.