Who Won the Space Race - U.S.A or U.S.S.R.?

All these years later, people (in #America at least) know the U.S. won the #spacerace. I mean, we landed on the #moon. But, if you think about it, did did the U.S. really win the race? Because the #SovietUnion was first in space in pretty much everything except for the moon. First #satellite, dog, man, and woman (in that order) in #space.

So, who actually won?
. . .

WRITER/NARRATOR
MARY BETH GRIGGS

VIDEO BY
TOM McNAMARA

MEDIA/ARCHIVE
#ARCHIVE.ORG
#GETTY
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
#NASA
NEW YORK TIMES
RACE FOR SPACE (1959)
. . .

FOLLOW POPULAR SCIENCE

[gar]

I'm from the US but I know a good sport when I see one and I think i'll give our good Russian neighbors 1st Place on the space race. Thumbs up to you guys!

[fatcat]

1957: First intercontinental ballistic missile and orbital launch vehicle, the R-7 Semyorka

1957: First satellite, Sputnik 1

1957: First animal in Earth orbit, the dog Laika on Sputnik 2

1959: First rocket ignition in Earth orbit, first man-made object to escape Earth's gravity, Luna 1

1959: First data communications, or telemetry, to and from outer space, Luna 1.

1959: First man-made object to pass near the Moon, first man-made object in Heliocentric orbit, Luna 1

1959: First probe to impact the Moon, Luna 2

1959: First images of the moon's far side, Luna 3

1960: First animals to safely return from Earth orbit, the dogs Belka and Strelka on Sputnik 5.

1961: First probe launched to Venus, Venera 1

1961: First person in space (International definition) and in Earth orbit, Yuri Gagarin on Vostok 1, Vostok programme

1961: First person to spend over 24 hours in space Gherman Titov, Vostok 2 (also first person to sleep in space).

1962: First dual manned spaceflight, Vostok 3 and Vostok 4

1962: First probe launched to Mars, Mars 1

1963: First woman in space, Valentina Tereshkova, Vostok 6

1964: First multi-person crew (3), Voskhod 1

1965: First extra-vehicular activity (EVA), by Aleksei Leonov, [18] Voskhod 2

1965: First probe to hit another planet of the Solar system (Venus), Venera 3

1966: First probe to make a soft landing on and transmit from the surface of the moon, Luna 9

1966: First probe in lunar orbit, Luna 10

1967: First unmanned rendezvous and docking, Cosmos 186/Cosmos 188.

1968: First living beings to reach the Moon (circumlunar flights) and return unharmed to Earth, Russian tortoises and other lifeforms on Zond 5

1969: First docking between two manned craft in Earth orbit and exchange of crews, Soyuz 4 and Soyuz 5

1970: First soil samples automatically extracted and returned to Earth from another celestial body, Luna 16

1970: First robotic space rover, Lunokhod 1 on the Moon.

1970: First data received from the surface of another planet of the Solar system (Venus), Venera 7

1971: First space station, Salyut 1

1971: First probe to impact the surface of Mars, Mars 2

1971: First probe to land on Mars, Mars 3

1975: First probe to orbit Venus, to make soft landing on Venus, first photos from surface of Venus, Venera 9

1980: First Hispanic and Black person in space, Arnaldo Tamayo Méndez on Soyuz 38

1984: First woman to walk in space, Svetlana Savitskaya (Salyut 7 space station)

1986: First crew to visit two separate space stations (Mir and Salyut 7)

1986: First probes to deploy robotic balloons into Venus atmosphere and to return pictures of a comet during close flyby Vega 1, Vega 2

1986: First permanently manned space station, Mir, 1986–2001, with permanent presence on board (1989–1999)

1987: First crew to spend over one year in space, Vladimir Titov and Musa Manarov on board of Soyuz TM-4 - Mir

[inspiringer]

As an american my teacher tought me that the ussr won because they managed to do the majority of things first. Im 15 so born in the 21st century.

[coffeebean]

Russia won the race into space, however, the US won the MOON race.

[saltmine]

USSR: first satelite in orbit. first animal in orbit. first animals in orbit with save return. first man in orbit. first woman in orbit. first spacesation. first thing landed on the moon. first rover on the moon. first probe on mars. first and only succesful working probe on surface of venus. Build booster rocket for soyuz vostok and sputnik more then 60 years ago and is still being used with soyuz spacecrafts. USA: first man on the moon . i say its a draw

[JamaicanMeCrazy]

Well USA still uses Russian rockets to get to space soooo

[pitchforkunion]

Pretty sure the USSR won the space race. The goal was to get to space, not the moon.

[moonfull]

USSR did more achievements in space and earlier

[luckyea]

The USSR won the space race. Here are the achievements of the USSR: the first artificial satellite (1957), the first animal in space (1957), the first photographs of the far side by the Moon (1959), the first man in space (1961), the first woman in space (1963) G.), the first spacewalk (1965), the first landing of a spacecraft (1966), the first landing of a spacecraft on another planet (Venus) (1970), the first space station (1971), the first landing of a spacecraft on Mars (1971).

Sergei Korolev, a supporter of a man landing on the moon, died in 1966, and after that Glushko, appointed general designer of the Soviet space program, decides to stop work on manned lunar programs, since he was a principled opponent of flights to the moon and advocated the creation of orbital near-earth stations for defense goals.

The USSR did not begin to land a man on the moon, as it was not economically feasible. The USSR decided that it was much cheaper to send automatic lunar interplanetary stations and self-propelled vehicles remotely controlled from Earth, which was done by the USSR later. Americans spent $ 28 billion from 1960 to 1973 on the Apollo program. Thus, the USSR was able to master the Moon, much more economically and efficiently than the United States. Therefore, the lunar race was also won by the USSR.

In general, in all respects, the USSR bypassed the United States.

[lotter]

Yeah I was always taught in elementary that the US won the space race. I kinda think they lied to me now and that was chiefly what we want to tell ourselves.

[luckyea]

You can also compare the total number of successful space launches from 1957 to 1991: the USSR - 2298, the USA - 945. The USSR has 2.43 times more than the USA.

The main winner is humanity! The space race has spurred the development of science, technology and industry. But the main factor in the growth of living standards is the development of fundamental science. The highest growth in labor productivity was in the 50s. Also, high growth was noted in the 60s and 70s. These are the years of the space race. Now the growth of labor productivity is 3 times less than in the 50s.

[ubcphysicsyangbo]

If Sputnik was launched today, the Republicans would just call it fake news 😂

[swampfox]

One thing though is that USA will be the first to drop men onto Mars and Venus and will be the ones to put the first space stations/satellites around those planets.

And idk who won the space race, America did put the first person onto something that's not earth. But USSR basically unloaded a house up there and put shit onto Venus/Mars. So honestly I wanna switch my opinion to USSR winning, just America made a big accomplishment.

[eziolorenzo]

Uhh... Let's be honest and be on point everyone. In my opinion. Russians/Soviets won the space race. But, they did not land on the moon. But, they launched the Sputnik and picture the Venus. Many people say that: "Hey. Us won the space race because we land on the Moon. But, despite of the hardships of the USSR (which they are the first Pioneer in the space in my opinion). They successfully put the first man on the Space. Which is a great achievement.
This is just an opinion. No harmful words.

[tuckercarlson]

also the USSR flag was on the moon first

[munnypoltric]

is the race over?
is it a race?
What are the rules?
Who is the judge?

[lonewanderer]

soviet union won but the usa quickly changed it too the moon cause they had a rocket already so usa is salty

[Ersenoy_Lomak]

If it says "СССР" you pronounce it SSSR not cccp

[MeltedToast]

USA: first man on moon

USSR:
First man in space
First animal in space
First Satellite in space


I WONDER WHO WON THE SPACE RACE?

[WheresShrek]

USSR got:

1. First man-made object
2. First animal
3. First human
4. First woman
5. First Black person
6. First landing on another planet

US got:

1. First moon landing