We have always dreamed about reaching the heavens. From ancient civilizations to the modern day world, our obsession of going into space has grown from studying the stars to actual exploration of space. We have come a long way since primitive charts of constellations. From telescopes to satellites, we as a population have progressed greatly in the world of technology. In a mere forty years, we have had more technological advances than the Industrial Revolution. The Space Race has affected our everyday lives; we use the same technology that the astronauts used during their missions for example digital clocks (Dismukes http://spaceflight.nasa.gov). Many industries have benefited, communication companies, industrial manufacturers, and the medical field. As a result of this technological revolution, the world has become smaller. With the technology gained from the Space Race, we can perform medical tasks that only existed in the dreams of surgeons; we can communicate with another person on the other side of the world in seconds, not days or months. Without the Space Race we would not have the technological advances that exist today. We as a population might have been stuck with the technology of the 1930's.
Germany, which has always been at the forefront of engineering, pioneered the technology for early rocketry. They broke new ground with the advances that they accomplished. The Germans interest in having rockets was due to the fact that after World War I the nation was banned in having long-range artillery, such as a bullet that can go several miles; instead Germany had begun research on rocket technology. Much of the accomplishment is credited to Hermann Oberth and Werner von Braun. Oberth wrote The Rocket Into Interplanetary Space. Later, his work motivated future rocket engineers, and von Braun, along with his students, developed the infamous V-2 rocket, later used in World War II (Neal 17).