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( Space Age)
The Space Age is a contemporary period encompassing the activities related to the Space Race, space exploration, space technology, and the cultural developments influenced by these events. The Space Age began with the development of several technologies that culminated on October 4, 1957, with the launch of Sputnik 1 by the Soviet Union. This was the world's first artificial satellite, orbiting the Earth in 98.1 minutes and weighting in at 83kg. The launch of Sputnik 1 ushered a new era of political, scientific and technological achievements that became known as the Space Age. The Space Age was characterized by rapid development of new technology in a close race mainly between USA and the Soviet Union. Rapid advances were made in rocketry, materials science, computers and many other areas. Much of the technology originally developed for space applications has been spun off and found other uses. The Space Age reached its peak with the Apollo program which captured the imagination of much of the world's population. The landing of Apollo 11 is an event watched by over 500 million people around the world and is widely recognized as one of the defining moments of the 20th century. Since then and with the end of the space race due to the collapse of the Soviet Union, public attention has largely moved to other areas.
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