Looking back at the Space Race of the 1950s and 1960s it can be startling to realise just how much was pioneered in such a short period of time. The narrative of that era is often constructed as a political one, with two superpowers spending significant proportions of their national budgets on scientific endeavour in an effort to be the first to reach the Moon. This is fine, and true, but with the passing of time it feels as if that story we tell – one of the Soviet Union reaching space first with Sputnik and Yuri Gagarin, but the United States coming from behind to triumph with Apollo 11 – implicitly downplays the fact that both “sides” involved were responsible for some astonishing scientific advances and breakthroughs, both before Neil Armstrong’s first lunar step and after.
Here’s just one of them, in full colour – the first ever spacewalk, by fighter pilot and cosmonaut Alexey Leonov:
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