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Who Won The Space Race?

Who Won The Space Race?


  • Total voters
    41
The race into space is indeed over. China catching up at this point is really over rated. Until we come up with a much better and long term enerrgy source it will not matter anyway.

Except that dominance of earth's orbit will have tremendous military implications...

And I didn't say the "race into space" nor did the OP ask that... nice attempt at morning the bar, though...
 
Except that dominance of earth's orbit will have tremendous military implications...

I never said it did not? Nations have dealing with that for the lat 20 years. Nothing new in that.

And I didn't say the "race into space" nor did the OP ask that... nice attempt at morning the bar, though...

I was talking about the whole thing. All I did was raise the IQ level' lol.
 
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Why is this poll stupid? Maybe the poll thinks YOURE stupid!

(Just checked with The Poll. The Poll thinks Ockham is a borderline genius. Will forward the details of the conversation shortly....)



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I've met people in the States who say the USSR won, and people from the USSR who say the States won, as well as the perhaps more patriotic viewpoints.

However, I myself have to side with the Soviet Union on this one. Many Americans think that the space race came to a close when Armstrong walked on the moon -- but much of the rest of the world doesn't see it that way.

I prefer to look at it in terms of "firsts", and their importance. The Soviet Union launched the first man-made object into space, made the first satellite to orbit the Earth, launched the first living beings into space, launched the first person into space, created the first satellite network, landed a craft on the moon first, and built the first space station. The Americans put a man on the moon, and were the first to send a probe to Mars and other celestial bodies.

To be honest, the Soviet Union's list of achievements here looks to me far more impressive than the United States -- not to mention the fact that the USSR's achievements hold much greater strategic value than the US's.

Either way, though, it hardly matters now. There are American, French and Russian cosmonauts on board the Russian-built space station, with shuttles launching from anywhere from Baikonur to Guyana to Florida, working for the benefit of all humanity. Who won the race decades ago is irrelevant.
 
The real winner of the space race are the people who sit in their homes who watch satellite feeds on the daily news. Governments got to the stroke their egos, but the real benefits were in the scientific and technological advancements, many of which eventually reached the consumer market.
 
The real winner of the space race are the people who sit in their homes who watch satellite feeds on the daily news. Governments got to the stroke their egos, but the real benefits were in the scientific and technological advancements, many of which eventually reached the consumer market.


Well the REAL winners are the business folks that are making money off of it.
 
The space race is still on going. The next leg is commercial flight.
 
USSR won the race to space..

USA won space based on exploitation.

This is based on the following.

USSR had the first satellite in space, first space station, first man and first woman and first living being in space. That must constitute winning the race into space on every basic level.

Now the US won the race to exploit space, since the US put the man on the moon, and the first reusable space ship. On top of that many of the technologies that the US pushed for to catch up to the Russian's have benefited the free world.
 
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Hmmm.....the US was the first to send men behind the moon, first photograph of the whole earth from space, first to land on the moon, first to send a fly by past Mars and Mercury, first to Jupiter, first to Saturn, first to Uranus, first to Neptune, first to send spacecraft into interstellar space, first to land a probe on Mars, first to photograph an asteroid, first to impact an asteroid, first space shuttle, first manned space station (anyone claiming Salyut 1 for this honor must think a woman is no longer a virgin after the first kiss. The crew couldn't get in the door of Salyut 1), first returned moon rock and soil samples, oldest operational spacecraft (Pioneer 6), first car on the moon, first traverse of the asteroid belt.

Russia has, first man in orbit, first crew dead in flight, turtles to the moon, their Venera probes were impressive, including the first strength test of a titanium lenscap on Venus, first to kill a spacecraft with Phobos.

Look, the Russians have many accomplishments, but no honest measure of the Space Race, which concluded with the landing of Armstrong, Collins, and Aldrin on the carrier deck, can conclude anything but that the Russians came in second. Races are determined by who crosses the finish line first, people.
 
Either way, though, it hardly matters now. There are American, French and Russian cosmonauts on board the Russian-built space station, with shuttles launching from anywhere from Baikonur to Guyana to Florida, working for the benefit of all humanity. Who won the race decades ago is irrelevant.

Hmmmmm there are 15 extant modules of the ISS, can you explain who's working the remaining 10 modules if the Americans, French, and Russians are restricted to the "Russian built" space station?

What part of "INTERNATIONAL" confuses you?
 
Where is the option.. "No one won the space race"? If anyone thinks being lousy and incapable in space is "winning", then please let me know.

At this time Russia leads in front of France. Why? Because Russia can get people into space the cheapest and get the most stuff into space by far. Arianspace is the most popular private launcher.

I think in the end both the US and Soviet/Russia will loose the space race.

China have an industrial capability that will rocket them into space far easier and cheaper than any country before. As a single country that in the future may win the space race, I would bet China.

Europe is the only one with a peaceful space doctrine where everyone is envisioned to cooperate which in the end will be possibility 2, that everyone wins the space race.

Third option is that everyone start militarising space, and everyone loose the spacerace. Countries like the US favour this type of approach.
 
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Actually, as much as I enjoy a nice laugh at Sarah Palin's expense, the USSR did win.

There's a reason why Yuri Gagarin in known as the "First man in space" and Alan Shepard is known as the first American in space.

We won the race to the moon.

Unbelieveable....you really are. So you think the race ended at Yuri Gagarin? It was a relay race, he only won the first leg. We buried the USSR in ten years from which they never recovered. How did anything they did benefit the world, what did they advance? This goes to your trigger-happy "Thankers" too.
 
I am personally a huge fan of space exploration, I think exploration is one of the noblest and most honorable undertakings any person can do. It truly pushes the boundaries of so many things, human knowledge, technology, and so often in history is done by people who literally give everything just to see whats over the next horizon. Of course I realize thats a quite a fantastical way to look at exploration in history, but we all have to have our heroes no?

Thats what I loved about the space race, it was a race in that the goal was to get their fast and first. Nothing spurs development like competition, which is why we went from our first manned space flight in 1961 to a moon landing in 1969. And I tell you if the USSR had landed on the moon as well, we'd have been on Mars in 10-20 years just to win the race.
 
Actually - Germany, but they allowed hatred and greed to dominate during the Hitler era.
 
Jim Slade

‎'Apollo was a political creation; science had very little to do with it. There was a "race" with the Russians and that was what the public saw and what they knew. Science was a hitchhiker, grubbing profits..and grateful for the chance; taken along because it would have been unseemly not to include it. After all, Apollo was going to a very mysterious place. But there was no mistaking that the Engineers were in charge and they were getting their orders from the White House. In all truth, that's what kept it going.

But whatever it was, it was glorious"

Jim Slade's Air Lines
 
Look, the Russians have many accomplishments, but no honest measure of the Space Race, which concluded with the landing of Armstrong, Collins, and Aldrin on the carrier deck, can conclude anything but that the Russians came in second. Races are determined by who crosses the finish line first, people.

In this case the USA moved the finish line after it failed to reach the original finish line first.

Russians made it to space first. On the race to space, Russians got there first. That doesn't sit well in the middle of the cold war, we can't let those godless commies win, so obviously the space race should be the first to the moon not the first to space.

Its like two brothers in a race to the house. They make a dash for it and for once the younger brother wins, grabbing the door and going in first before the older brother. Not wanting to let his younger brother win the older one yells out "Its the first one that gets to the couch in the living room!" and weaves his way through the house quicker than his younger sibling to land solidly on the couch going "Beat you again".

The younger brother obviously won the race to the house, so the older one switched the goal posts to allow him his own chance to "win" the race.
 
In this case the USA moved the finish line after it failed to reach the original finish line first.

Russians made it to space first. On the race to space, Russians got there first. That doesn't sit well in the middle of the cold war, we can't let those godless commies win, so obviously the space race should be the first to the moon not the first to space.

Its like two brothers in a race to the house. They make a dash for it and for once the younger brother wins, grabbing the door and going in first before the older brother. Not wanting to let his younger brother win the older one yells out "Its the first one that gets to the couch in the living room!" and weaves his way through the house quicker than his younger sibling to land solidly on the couch going "Beat you again".

The younger brother obviously won the race to the house, so the older one switched the goal posts to allow him his own chance to "win" the race.

I'm of the view that the space race wasn't about one perticular milestone or another. I'd actually argue that it either wasn't a race at all in the traditional sense as it didn't have an end, since as you say after one goal was reached the race moved onto the next one. OR that it was actually several races to achieve major milestones, such as first man in space, first orbit, first man on the moon, first space station, etc
 
Unbelieveable....you really are. So you think the race ended at Yuri Gagarin?

Unbelieveable....you really are. Do you always fail to read what is being responded to? Look at Palin's quote:

"He [Obama] needs to remember what happened back then with the former communist USSR and their victory in that race to space"

Do you know what "to" means?

How did anything they did benefit the world, what did they advance?

Are you really that delusional about the communist boogieman that you think the USSR didn't do anything to benefit the world technologically?
 
Says the guy who thinks Germany won the space race. :roll:

I actually just looked it up and it seems it "could" be interpreted that way because the Nazi German space agency decided to move to America to get positions at NASA and they were a huge part of NASA's team for the moon and the launch of the Saturn rockets for the Apollo Lunar Program.
 
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