On October 4, 1957, the Soviet Union launched the world's first artificial Earth satellite, Sputnik I, thereby starting the space race. After 4 months, the United States managed to launch its own artificial satellite - "Explorer I". According to the "Sputnik - 1" data, it was possible to clarify the density of the upper layers of the atmosphere and with the help of the "Explorer - 1" data, the radiation belts of the Earth were discovered.
Since 1958 both countries created the first "robotic space probes" to study the celestial bodies of the solar system and outer space. Initially, the countries attempted to launch a series of Soviet "Luna" and American "Pioneer" spacecraft directed towards the Moon.
The following year the USSR made its first success. The world's first station "Luna-1" launched on January 2 reached the second cosmic velocity, overcoming the gravity of the Earth and became the first artificial satellite of the Sun. The probe also managed to carry out direct measurements of the properties of the solar wind.
On September 14, the Luna-2 station was the first to reach the lunar surface delivering a pennant with the USSR emblem. A month later, "Luna-3", flying around the orbit, took pictures of the far side of the moon. However, the first Pioneer series spacecraft launched to the Moon were not very successful. From 1966 to 1968, the Surveyor and Lunar Orbiter program carried on more successful research.
Since March 11, 1960, the Pioneer-5 - Pioneer-9 spacecraft started to study the nature of the solar wind, cosmic rays and the earth's magnetic field. On October 10 and 14, the USSR made the first unsuccessful attempts to send two robotic space probes to Mars.
In 1961, the United States created the Ranger program, a series of unmanned space missions that attempted a test flight to the Moon. In the same year, on February 12, the USSR launched the Venera-1 spacecraft, which became the first spacecraft to fly close to Venus. "Venera-1" confirmed the presence of solar wind plasma in interplanetary space. On February 19, the last telemetry session with "Venus-1" took place, but due to the loss of communication, the scientific program was not carried out. On April 12, Yuri Gagarin made the first flight into space on the Vostok launch vehicle with the Vostok-1 spacecraft. After that, on May 25, Kennedy addressed the Congress, stating that the country should make every effort to send a man to the moon and bring them back to earth alive. With this decision, Kennedy initiated the Apollo program.
Year 1962. NASA created 10 Mariner spacecraft to explore Venus, Mars and Mercury. The Mariner spacecraft, unlike the Pioneers, could function in space from several months to 3 years. After the unsuccessful launch of Mariner-1, a month later, on August 27, the Atlas-Agena launch vehicle launched the Mariner-2 spacecraft, which was the first in the world to successfully study the planet Venus, the spacecraft passed at a distance of 34.7 thousand km from Venus ... Mariner 2 transmitted data confirming the theory of the planet's extremely hot atmosphere, discovered the absence of a magnetic field in Venus, and measured the planet's rotation speed around its axis. 5 years later, with a similar goal, Mariner-5 was launched and it managed to acquire more detailed information about the planet's atmosphere. The rest of the space probes were sent to explore Mars. Mariner-5 was originally a backup of the Mariner 4 mission to Mars. It was modified so that it could work closer to the Sun.