To Scale Space : A newspaper Analysis on the First Space Men of the Cold War

The Space Race during the Cold War was an era when the World saw great possibilities and scientific discoveries. Before 1957, the thing we call space had never been scaled by man. The Soviet Union turned this over with Sputnik 1, the very first artificial satellite which would change our way to research everything beyond Earth. Although this is true, there is also another side of Space Race which has more or less nothing to do with space at all – the politics. There is no denying that the politics about Space Race was far more essential for the United States and the Soviet Union than any scientific research. Kennedy talked about prestige and to “be ahead” in the race for space. Of course, the Americans and the Russians were fully involved and knew what could be gained from winning the race. But what about other nations? What about the Swedes? This thesis brings the Space Race to Sweden and examines two Swedish newspapers to get a clear view on how the people of Sweden actually encountered Space Race. To narrow the thesis down, the author picked two important events where the political side of Space Race is distinct – Yuri Gagarin’s orbit of the Earth in 1961 and John Glenn’s orbit of the Earth in 1962. What kind of position in the Space Race did Sweden have, and how is it reflected in the newspapers? Does the political differences in two leading tabloids affect the outcome of the articles? And which kind of theories about the Cold War could be applied on these tabloids? This kind of research is uncommon to encounter in Sweden, but it ought to be dealt with here