The most unknown details around the history of the space race

The fascinating space race is propitious to know or to remember facts curious and anecdotal, some little commented. These are 7 very interesting.

1- A Soviet ship may have hit Armstrong and Aldrin in the head

In the electrifying race to reach the Moon first, almost as US astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walked on the satellite, the unmanned Soviet Luna 15 spacecraft attempted to land. The Soviets wanted to have a sample of satellite rocks before the gringos. However, the ship crashed and the project failed.

2- The first in space were the Nazis
The first country to place an artifact in space was Nazi Germany, when on October 3, 1942, it sent the first copy of its rocket program. Less than three years later the so-called Third Reich collapsed and many Nazi scientists went to the United States and the USSR to work on the space programs of the two great rivals of the Cold War.

3- The concept of airspace was developed

Humankind had agreed on land and sea spaces, but the space race came to remember that there was also airspace to discuss. The United States and the USSR did not agree. In the end, the Soviets sent the first artificial satellite, the Sputnik, and they understood that it was convenient for them to sign an agreement for their devices to spy in peace on the United States.

4- The Moon as a bomb launch station

Both rivals of the Cold War feared that the first one that arrived at the Moon, would use the satellite to attack its rival with nuclear bombs. A treaty banning military bases and atomic weapons was signed on the Moon.

5- The Soviets worked on the development of a laser gun
The Russian space cowboys wanted to have a good pistol in case they had to exchange some shots with the enemy of the Old West in outer space. They also did not want to be defenseless on the lunar surface if the Americans positioned themselves near the satellite and attacked them from their ships. In the end, they abandoned the project.

6- The Soviet Navy deployed to help Apollo 13
When the dramatic return to Earth from Apollo 13, it was feared that the ship could fall anywhere. The USSR deployed its vessels across the Pacific to assist if necessary. In the end, the astronauts were rescued by a US spacecraft southeast of American Samoa. Surprisingly, it was the most accurate watering of the entire Apollo program.

7- The Americans took to the Moon a Gagarin medal

Yuri Gagarin, the first man in outer space, had died a year before the Americans landed. At the request of the widow of Gagarin, Armstrong took to the Moon a medal of the Soviet and left it in the satellite like tribute and memory of the great pioneer of the conquest of the space.