VIENNA (AN) — Ever since the Soviet Union launched the world's first artificial satellite Sputnik I in 1957, United Nations officials and diplomats have adopted a more celestial approach towards their original Earth-bound mission of trying to prevent more wars.
Sputnik triggered the infamous space race between the Russians and Americans, catapulting the space industry and technological advances in both nations. The space race ended in a handshake in 1975 between U.S. astronaut Tom Stafford and Russian cosmonaut Aleksey Leonov during a joint docking mission of the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project, the first time two nations collaborated with separate spacecraft.
Science & Technology — Austria — Canada — China — Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS) — Conference on Disarmament — France — Germany — India — Intelsat Agreement 1971 — International Space Station (ISS) — Japan — Launch Registration Convention 1976 — Liability Convention 1972 — Luxembourg — Moon Agreement 1984 — Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI) — Outer Space Treaty 1967 — Partial Test Ban Treaty 1963 — Prevention of an Arms Race in Outer Space (PAROS) Treaty — Rescue Agreement 1968 — Russia — United Kingdom (U.K.) — U.N. General Assembly (UNGA) — U.N. Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) — United Nations (U.N.) — Europe
