The human urge to explore beyond the Earth is thousands of years old, but not until the 1950s did we actually make it beyond our own atmosphere. Race Into Space is an exciting look at the space race of the last century, when two countries spurred on by the Cold War competed to be the leader in space exploration. From the early attempts at rocket building to the Russian and American space programs of the 1950s, 60s, 70s and 80s, rockets sent dogs, monkeys, and eventually humans into the dark regions beyond our planet. Topics include
• early telescopes of the 1600s and the dream of going beyond our planetary confines
• the establishment in 1958 of the National Space and Aeronautics Administration (NASA)
• the Gemini and Apollo space missions
• "One small step for Man" in 1969 and subsequent lunar landings
• Skylab and other space experiments