American Technology

The Apollo 11 Command Module, "Columbia", was made out of aluminum alloy, titanium and steel. It carried Buzz Aldrin, Michael Collins and Niel Armstrong thoughout their voyage to the moon and was the only portion of the spacecraft to return to the Earth. The Columbia accomplished what many Soviet modules could not by safely and successfully reentering the Earth's atmosphere.

The Saturn V rocket was the largest, most powerful rocket launched prior to 1969. It was significantly stronger and more well designed than its Soviet counterpart the N1/L3 rocket and was to a large degree the reason the Americans were able to win the space race.

American technology began to evolve at a rapid pace because of the demand the Space Race caused to keep ahead of the Soviets. The US Space Program pioneered numerous new technologies and discoveries that had benefits outside of space travel as they sought the best way to take astronauts to the lunar surface. The American idea of science and how it should be taught and applied changed radically during the Space Race. New inventions such as scratch proof lenses, MRI machines, and cordless electronics all found their roots in the Space Race (Sam, n.d.). Scientists discovered while working on information systems for rockets that they could apply transistors to microchips reducing the size of electronics, making them easier to fabricate in clean rooms and ultimately leading to the Information Revolution.  The imagination inspired by our quest for the moon is seen in popular culture from the time including shows such as Star Trek and Lost in Space.
Sam, J. (n.d.). Technology spin-offs. Retrieved from http://spaceracehistory.tripod.com/spin.shtml

    Star Trek's Spock and the Sub Space Communicator, the original smart phone. The Space Race fired American creativity. The United States public originally imagined many of the of the pieces of technology we rely on today on television show, such as Star Trek.