y 1959 the Cold War and the space race were well under way. In September of that year, the Soviet Union sent the first spacecraft to the Moon's surface. In October Washington was jolted again when a Soviet spaceship took the first photographs of the Moon’s dark side. The superpowers were jockeying for supremacy in places near and far. Even Antarctica had become a potential hotspot.
Both the United States and Russia claimed their explorers had been the first to see Antarctica close up, during expeditions in 1820. Both were among the handful of countries that would lay early claims to parts of the icy continent. Even the Nazis, in 1939, tried to stake a claim, littering the ice with metal swastikas during an aerial survey.
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