Michael Collins once proclaimed that "it is human nature to stretch, to go, to see, to understand." Exploration isn't really a choice; it is an imperative. People have always been fascinated by space exploration and it was in the 1950s that the “space race” took off. Russia and the United States wanted to be the first to travel into space and land on the Moon. Today, nations are still active in space exploration. This includes NASA (United States), Russian Federal Space Agency, CNSA (China), JAXA (Japan), ESA (Europe), ISA (Italy), ROSA (Romania) and Soviet Union. Today, some may say that the American space program has slowed down or even stopped being interested in space. However, there is ample evidence that NASA is still very interested in space. On October 4, 1957, a historic moment was marked when the Soviet Union launched Sputnik I, the first artificial satellite. Sputnik I was only the size of a beach ball, weighed only 183.9 pounds, and was the marker of the “space race” between the United States and the Soviet Union. It was a huge technological achievement that attracted worldwide attention and ended up disappointing the Americans because they did not send the first satellite into space. American citizens also feared that if the Soviet Union could send satellites into space, then it might possess the power to send ballistic missiles or nuclear weapons. Then the Soviets raised the bar by sending Laika, the first living thing into space with a much heavier payload, on November 3. Laika, meaning “barker” in Russian, was a stray dog ​​who was only three years old when she went into space. Laika was sent into space in a restrictive spacecraft that only had enough room...... middle of paper ...... they are completing their certification and at least one crewed demonstration mission to the space station, which is expected in the fall of 2017." And let's face it, any space flight from the United States will be much more comfortable for our astronauts than a flight in another country away from home . http://history.nasa.gov/sputnik/. http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/sts1/gagarin_anniversary.html. http://www.nasa.gov/audience/forstudents/k-4/stories/first-person-on-moon.html. http://history1900s.about.com/od/1950s/p/laikathedog.htm. http://www.space.com/19743-space-exploration-priority-nasa.html. http://www.informationweek.com/nasa-tests-technologies-for-deep-space-exploration/d/d-id/1204527. http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2011/08/shut-a19.html. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n1405/27soyuz/#.U4d-P9yprwI