1959-1969: The Space Race

3 . . . 2 . . . 1 . . . liftoff! Scholastic launched its first issue of Science World in September 1959. Over the following decade, one of the major stories the magazine reported on was the race between the U.S. and the former Soviet Union to explore space. The competition led to the development of technologies that launched the first satellites into space and landed astronauts on the moon!

Science World is now covering some of the new “races” aiming to advance humans’ presence in space. Several private companies want to take tourists beyond Earth’s atmosphere, while others hope to mine resource-rich asteroids. NASA and other space agencies are making plans to someday establish colonies on or orbiting the moon—or beyond. “Who knows? The kids who read this magazine might be the first to see a human mission to Mars,” says Andrew Chaikin, a space historian and author.