space race

Nikita Khrushchev’s Son Watched his Father Lose the Space Race. 50 Years After the Moon Landing, He Holds No Grudge

India Plans to Launch Moon Mission in July

By Saritha Rai / Bloomberg

See John Glenn's Career on the Cover of LIFE Magazine

By Liz Ronk and Olivia B. Waxman

John Glenn: A Hero's Life in Pictures

By TIME Photo
More in space race

Why the Soviets Beat the U.S. in Sending a Woman to Space

“The U.S. could have been first to put a woman up in space simply by deciding to do so,” declared Clare Boothe Luce

By Eliza Berman

The Other Giant Leap: What Happened to the First Man to Walk in Space

Half a century ago, Russian legend Alexei Leonov took a perilous step into the void

By Jeffrey Kluger

Smiles in Quarantine: Remembering Apollo 11 After Splashdown

Photos of Armstrong, Collins and Aldrin interacting with family members and with the president are about as different in tone from the somber images of quarantined ebola patients as one is likely to find.

By Ben Cosgrove

Dancing for Gagarin: The USSR Celebrates the 'First Man in Space'

Victory meant quite different things at different times during the Cold War, a reality that LIFE photographer James Whitmore captured while on assignment in Moscow in the spring of 1961.

By Ben Cosgrove

Dining Out at 17,000 MPH: A Brief History of Food in Space

A look at the sorts of foods astronauts enjoy--or endure--while in space.

By Ben Cosgrove

'To the Moon and Back.' See LIFE's Complete Special Issue on Apollo 11

For millions of people who witnessed the Apollo 11 triumph, the event perhaps did not feel quite real until, two weeks later, LIFE magazine published its definitive account of the epic journey

By Ben Cosgrove

Why Russia Won't Catch Up in the Space Race

It takes a lot of things to run a successful space program, but petulance, anger and impulsiveness are not among them. That's a lesson Vladimir Putin has to learn.

By Jeffrey Kluger

Buoyancy and Bliss: A LIFE Magazine Editor Revels in Zero Gravity

In 1959, self-described overweight and out-of-shape LIFE magazine Science Editor Warren R. Young flew with aviators during early zero-gravity tests.

By Ben Cosgrove

Magnificent Seven: LIFE With America's Mercury Astronauts

Photos from the early days of NASA's Project Mercury, when Shepard, Glenn, Slayton, Grissom, Schirra, Cooper and Carpenter were legends in the making.

By Ben Cosgrove

The Apollo 1 Launchpad Fire: Remembering Grissom, White and Chaffee

On the anniversary of one of the worst disasters in NASA's history, LIFE remembers astronauts Gus Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffee, who died in a fire on a Cape Kennedy launchpad on Jan. 27, 1967.

By Ben Cosgrove

10 Iconic LIFE Covers

These covers provide as strong and as varied a sampling as one is likely to find of 10 pictures that capture the very best of LIFE through the years.

By Ben Cosgrove

LIFE With the Astrochimps: Early Stars of the Space Race

Remembering America's famous "astrochimps" with photos of Ham and his cohorts taken before and after his wild 1961 ride

By Ben Cosgrove

America's First Space Walk: Edward White Makes History, June 1965

LIFE remembers an emotionally gripping, technically audacious space walk -- America's first -- in June 1965, when Gemini 4 astronaut Ed White stepped from his capsule and made history.

By Ben Cosgrove

Scott Carpenter (1925 - 2013): Rare and Classic Photos of a NASA Legend

LIFE.com celebrates Scott Carpenter's stellar NASA career with a series of rare, up-close-and-personal photographs that reveal the quieter side of a legendary astronaut's life.

By Liz Ronk

Up Close and Personal With Apollo 11: A Photographer's Story

Ralph Morse remembers his time with the Apollo 11 astronauts -- and their families -- before their great adventure in 1969

By Ben Cosgrove

John Glenn: Rare and Classic Photos From an American Life

No person alive has been more closely associated, for so long, with America’s triumphs in the early days of the Space Race than John Glenn, and few Americans in history have served their country in...

By Ben Cosgrove
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