
25 Aug 2008, 19:32
People say that the US won the space race because they got to the moon. It's true that they did but the Soviets had the first object in space, the first life form in space, and the first man in space. By my count the score is 3-1 in favor of the Soviets.

25 Aug 2008, 20:09
iirc the whole race was to get to the moon. Or at least that is the prevailing attitude here in america (probably because that's where we actually won).

25 Aug 2008, 22:21
It doesn't really matter as said in the above post. It was the people who made the technology available to enter space who are the victors. But if taken to a competition I'd say the Soviets won the space race. They had Sputnik, Laika and Yuri Gagarin way before the U.S. sent anything into space.

26 Aug 2008, 00:32
And records for the longest period of living in space (which still hold if I'm not mistaken).
Going to the Moon was pointless and little came from it that couldn't have been done with space probes. Practically speaking, the Soviets were right to give up their program. The only thing I regret was the propaganda millage the U.S. got out of it.
Both the U.S.S.R. and the Americans had their areas of specialisation. The Americans with better computing technology were able to build better space probes (the Voyager craft being an example). However, if you were interested in manned space flight, the Soviets were the people to talk to. Even today, the "International" space station wouldn't be in orbit without Russian space technology. Many Americans like to think of the station as their own, but in terms of the critical systems (life support, navigation etc) it is really a more modern version of Mir.

26 Aug 2008, 22:22
The idea of a space race victor is misleading. The space race is still ongoing, albeit in a more limited form. As for the competition between the US and USSR, I'd put them on a roughly equal level. Both had great achievements.

27 Aug 2008, 13:58
NASA and everyone else... or more specifically, Russia, China, India, the ESA etc.

27 Aug 2008, 14:06
I'm sorry, I'm not really well read in terms of space exploring but doesn't the NASA sort of have the monopoly on space travel?
Do the other nations work together regularly? I never got the impression that the other nations could achieve as much as the NASA, it has a much higher budget and better technology.

27 Aug 2008, 15:39
They don't work together, that's true, and I'm not saying they should form a bloc against America. My view is that space exploration should always be a joint venture between all the powers. This is probably the only way to ensure funding high enough to actually do major missions - like landing a man (or woman) on Mars.

04 Feb 2009, 19:03
If you ask me the soviets won the space race. It was called the SPACE race, not the moon race. The US won the moon race though but thats another story.
The USSR sent objects into space before the US even realized it was possible.

06 Apr 2009, 19:52
I'm not sure if this is the same for anyone else, but I have the impression that for each race that the Americans lost, it was just "that one didn't count, but the next one will" until they won. The Soviets got many things first before the Americans won the first man on the moon.