The Space Race was an important moment in history, for the United States, the USSR, and the rest of the world. Soon after World War II, the Soviet Union and the United States began a global battle, communism versus democracy. Space became a huge entity during the "war". Each side spends billions to improve their respective outcomes in what later became known as the famous "space race." The Cold War was that of the US capitalists against the Soviet communists. It wasn't a real war, but more of a grudge, because there was no real fighting going on. It all began in the late 1950s, after the Second World War. The “war” ended after the fall of the Berlin Wall and the fall of the USSR in 1991. Although they hated each other, both powers had a common enemy, Nazi Germany. They also worked together during World War II. They only did this because President Roosevelt wanted to end the war as quickly as possible. He was quoted as saying he "hates war" (Peters). On October 4, 1957, Sputnik I was launched by the Soviet Union. It was the world's first artificial satellite, about the size of a beach ball. The launch marked the beginning of the "space race" (Garber). On November 3, 1957, Sputnik II was launched. It was the first satellite to carry a living animal, a dog named Laika (russianspaceweb.com), AKA "Mutnik" (Space Race: Cold War Front). This shocked the world even more than Sputnik I. Forty-one Sputniks in total are believed to have been produced, but only twenty-five launched (Sputnik 1957-1963). Shortly after Sputnik II, the United States launched Explorer I, which led to the discovery of the Van Allen radiation belt (Timeline of Space Exploration). This was much better than the first attempt to launch its own satellite, which went "kaputnik". The Soviets are late... halfway down the paper..." exclaimed Neil Armstrong (That's one small step for man; one giant leap for mankind." The funny thing is, he got the line wrong while in reality should have said "That's one small step for a man; one giant leap for humanity." Article "a" makes a big difference, and with over half a billion people watching his "moonwalk," made a big mistake. stage.The rush originally began when the USSR launched Sputnik I, which triggered the rush that JFK made his request, and the US started NASA, the National Aeronautics Agency and it Space, and began the Apollo Project after much hard work and setbacks, the United States prevailed and launched Apollo 11, the first manned mission to land on the moon The total cost of the Apollo project: more than twenty-four billion of dollars won to be first on the Moon: priceless.