The Space Race was a "race" between the United States and the Soliviet union. At the beginning of the race there was no defined goal and it wasn't really an official race. The main cause of the Space Race was that both countries were developing new technologies for war but, in the proccess they also unlocked the potnetial to launch things into space. The frist thing lauched into space was Sputnik 1 by Russia. Later, the U.S. joined and it became a competiton between the two countries to get further into space exploration. The Space Race then became a big portion of the Cold War.