The story of space activities I.

For all countries, achieving technical excellence is a fundamental condition of space exploration. At the beginning of the space era, this was only a rivalry between the US and the Soviet Union. Today, many countries have the technical maturity to be able to develop an independent space programme. Until the end of the 20th century, only a very small number of countries, and mostly alongside the major space powers, developed their own space policies. In this consisting of two parts paper, I focus on examining the main stages that enabled main country's space capabilities. My primary analysis will focus on the geopolitical theories that have provided the theoretical basis for the great power plans, as well as on the rocket capabilities of the main space-capable countries, satellite capabilities and, of course, the path to the Moon landing. Space exploration became feasible in the last decades of the 19th century and the first decades of the 20th century. The earlier eras provided a solid foundation for putting a man on the Moon today and for the continuing human interest in space over the centuries.