The goal was to put a man on the moon and return him safely to earth.
If we had gone to Mars instead and the Soviets went to the moon, then they would've won.
#truth. The wright brothers didn’t invent the first glider, the internal combustion engine. They didn’t even come up with the first fictional design for a flying machine.... but they are known as the forefathers of aviation because they won the big game. You can go perfect record the whole season but if you lose the championship game who gets cheered and goes in the book?
Pretty much. 12 people have walked on the moon and every one of them was American. Without being funny- the place where we can mark the “end” of the “space race” was the point where everyone else basically quit and said “welp... not gonna one up that...” We May we’ll be entering a new space race- a lunar colony, manned exploration of mars or another world, etc. But wether it’s a “race” will depend on wether people are actually competing to get there first- or at all- otherwise it’s just “space exploration” and the progress of science/engineering. It’s only a race if you have opponents.
Ol goofy ass Eli and the Giants spoiling the Patriot's perfect season when they had arguably the best football team ever assembled... ahhh.. sooo sweet.
It wasn't until after sputnik that the U.S. began actually funding NASA. Before then no one in government gave a shit about the space program. After that the U.S. played catchup and decided to go for the hail mary play and send the first humans to the moon
Ever played Rock Paper Scissors? Did you win? What did you win? But let’s say just winning isn’t enough? Ok. We got to put out flag on the moon. That’s pretty cool. We... got to do tests and bring back samples to further the collective scientific knowledge of all man kind? The developments and discoveries in computing and aerospace and materials science etc required for the missions benefited other civilian technologies world wide? We got a moon rock? I dunnoh man. Pick whichever one you like. We won, but everyone on earth was a winner for it- so... yeah. Just take your pick.
So yeah, the Soviets did do a lot of firsts, but they couldn't get their heavy rockets to work, their equivalent to the Saturn V, and after Apollo 17, the missions turned to research in orbit and of other planets. There was some collaboration between the two agencies even.
Let's also not forget:
First rendezvous in Space: USA
First Docking in Space: USA
First Docking of 2 Manned Spacecraft: USA
First Lunar Orbit: USA
First Manned Lunar Orbit: USA
Get facts completely straight and include all accomplishments, not just cherry pick them.
If we had gone to Mars instead and the Soviets went to the moon, then they would've won.
Let's also not forget:
First rendezvous in Space: USA
First Docking in Space: USA
First Docking of 2 Manned Spacecraft: USA
First Lunar Orbit: USA
First Manned Lunar Orbit: USA
Get facts completely straight and include all accomplishments, not just cherry pick them.