18. The Space Race

Today we have Dr Roger Launius on the show talking about the space race that took place between the USA and the USSR during the Cold War. In particular, we focus on the race to the moon that famously ended with US astronauts, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, landing on the moon in 1969. Roger will be explaining why the space race was so important to US national security, how NASA managed to pull off such a feat, and what it meant for relations between the superpowers during the Cold War.

Roger is well placed to cover these subjects. He has worked as a historian with the US Air Force, Chair of Space History at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington DC, and served as the Chief Historian at NASA between 1990 and 2002. He has won an array of awards for his work promoting American space exploration, including the John F. Kennedy Astronautics Award and a NASA Distinguished Service Medal.