# THE RACE FOR SPACE 1959 EARLY SPACE FLIGHT HISTORY DOCUMENTARY 51264

“The Race For Space” is a 1959 made-for-television documentary film directed by David L. Wolper and narrated by famed newsman Mike Wallace. It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature, and originally aired in April 1960. The film opens with a countdown in Russian and a rocket streaking into the night sky in the opening seconds before Wallace notes “you are the first Americans to see this launching of Sputnik 1.” (Sputnik, the first artificial Earth satellite, launched by the Soviet Union on Oct. 4, 1957. It triggered the Space Race and ushered in new political, military, technological, and scientific developments.) Wallace explains the film’s purpose starting at mark 01:08 , and how the “race for space has always involved a great ideal — a dream that existed long before the Cold War. One of man’s oldest dreams — a trip to the stars.” Wallace explains at mark 04:44 how Robert Goddard, an American engineer, professor, physicist, and inventor, built the world’s first liquid-fueled rocket in 1926 and ushered in the Space Age. Wallace interviews his widow, Edith, starting at mark 05:30 , who reminisces about her husband’s work while scenes of Goddard and his experiments unfold on the screen. The film goes back prior to World War II and to amateur rocketry clubs in Germany (mark 10:40 ), which helped filmmakers create the film “Woman in the Moon” in 1929. It is often considered to be one of the first “serious” science fiction films. A decade later it caught…

- Kind: Documentary
- Genres: Documentary, Space, History, Industrial and advertising
- Archive: [Internet Archive](https://archive.org/details/51264TheRaceToSpace)
- Licence or status: none stated by the archive
- Who can watch: Teens profiles and older (the archive gives no rating; placed by Invisible Network from its collection and subjects)

[Watch now](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/watch/archive/ia/51264TheRaceToSpace?play=1)