Space Race 2.0

It started with a beep. On October 4, 1957, the Soviet Union launched Sputnik 1The first human-made object to orbit Earth — a metal sphere about the size of a beach ball that sent a radio beep. — a metal sphere about the size of a beach ball. It circled Earth and sent a radio signal anyone with the right radio could hear. The United States had not expected to come in second.NASA

A replica of Sputnik 1, the first artificial satellite. Wikimedia Commons

The beep was the sound. The fear was bigger. If a country could put a satelliteAn object people launch that keeps circling a planet instead of falling back down. Sputnik was the first, and the rocket power needed to put one overhead is the same power needed to throw a weapon at another country. in orbit, it might also send a missile across the world. That is why Sputnik landed in the middle of the Cold War — a long standoff between the United States and the Soviet Union. Space became a way to prove whose system worked better, without fighting a nuclear war.

Four years later, the Soviets did it again. On April 12, 1961, cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human to fly in space. The United States was not far behind. That same year, President John F. Kennedy made the next step public: land a man on the Moon and bring him home before the decade was over.NASA

Apollo 11 launches from Kennedy Space Center, July 16, 1969. NASA / Wikimedia Commons (public domain)

On July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walked on the Moon while Michael Collins flew overhead. About 650 million people watched. The first race had a finish line, and the United States crossed it.NASA

After Apollo, the United States flew the space shuttle for 30 years and helped build the International Space Station. People kept going to orbit. They just didn't keep going to the Moon. For about fifty years that finish line sat empty.

Artemis I lifts off, November 16, 2022. NASA / Wikimedia Commons (public domain)

NASA's new program is an attempt to walk there again — but this time the field is crowded. The U.S. plan is called Artemis, after Apollo's twin sister. Artemis I, in 2022, sent an empty Orion capsuleThe small sealed cabin that astronauts actually ride in, carried up on top of a much larger rocket and usually the only part that comes back to Earth. Orion, Boeing's Starliner, and SpaceX's Crew Dragon are all built to this shape. around the Moon. Later flights are supposed to carry astronauts, then land them near the Moon's south pole, where ice in the shadows might be useful for fuel and water. As of August 2026, NASA's published plan for the next big crewedWith astronauts on board. NASA marks a flight this way to separate it from a test that goes up empty, and Artemis III will carry people even though it will not land them on the Moon. test — Artemis III — is practice in Earth orbit with commercialBuilt and owned by a private business rather than by the government. NASA is buying the ride instead of building the spacecraft itself, so SpaceX and Blue Origin, not NASA, set the schedules these Moon plans depend on. lander companies, not a landing. The landing is planned later.NASA

NASA is not building those landers alone. SpaceX, founded by Elon Musk, already flies cargo and crews to the space station and is building a huge vehicle called Starship that NASA picked as one Moon lander. Blue Origin, founded by Jeff Bezos and based in Kent, Washington, is building another. NASA wants more than one company on purpose: if one design fails, the program still has a way down to the surface.NASA HLS

China is not waiting to be scored against Artemis. Its Chang'e program has landed robots on the Moon and brought samples home, and China has said it wants to send astronauts to the lunarHaving to do with the Moon. Reaching this surface means landing on it, which no country has done with people aboard since 1972. surface later this decade. That is a second, separate program with its own dates and goals — not a point on a U.S. scoreboard.Wikipedia For a civics class, the question is not how a rocket works. It is who is racing, who is paying, and who gets to write the rules.

You don't need a launch pad in the backyard to be in this story. One of the companies NASA picked to land astronauts on the Moon is headquartered a short drive from this school. Another famous Washington name is in space too — just not in the way a rumor might guess.

A NASA official tours Blue Origin. The company is headquartered in Kent, Washington. NASA / Wikimedia Commons (public domain)

Blue Origin's headquarters is in Kent, south of Seattle, in the same metro area as Alderwood Middle School. NASA hired the company to build a Human Landing System: a spacecraft meant to carry astronauts from lunar orbit down to the surface. As of August 2026, that lander is still being developed. A test version is part of NASA's Artemis III dockingConnecting two spacecraft in space so they can join together. plan in Earth orbit.NASA HLS

Boeing's Everett factory. Boeing was founded in Seattle in 1916. Starliner is a different Boeing project — not built in this building. Wikimedia Commons

Boeing started in Seattle in 1916, and the Everett factory still builds jet airliners. Starliner is a Boeing capsule too — a NASA crew vehicle for the space station — but it is assembled in Florida, not in Everett. Both things can be true: Washington has a real space company in Kent, and Starliner is not built down the road from school.Wikipedia

As of August 2026, Starliner's next flight was planned as uncrewedFlying with nobody on board. After the trouble on Starliner's 2024 test with astronauts aboard, the next flight is meant to carry only supplies. cargo. Boeing said "no earlier than" late 2026. NASA had not announced a launch date. The news is that missing date, not a guess about which day it will finally fly.Wikipedia