4. Who won the space race? Why was this event important?

As I was researching the controversy topic of who won the space race? I came upon a non biased website that based their answer on three perspectives. Well these answers can be seen from three different angles according to universe today: who struck first, who pulled ahead, and who learned to work together. Well the program that “struck first” was the Russians with the launching the satellite Sputnik 1 in 1957, followed soon by the manned flight by Yuri Gagarin in 1961. Sputnik 1 became the first ever artificial satellite that orbited Earth and they became the first nation to launch a human into space.






The U.S. however won the “who pulled ahead “perspective by completing successful missions regularly. After being head-to-head NASA was able to land many successful missions on the moon. However the Russian space program ran into a great deal of trouble as many missions were unsuccessful which cost them the lead to the Americans.






Both NASA and the Russian Space Program “learned to work together” as they made great strides to gain knowledge about the universe. They began cooperating when the U.S. started the Apollo II mission. Russians had a lunar probe in orbit at the same exact time as the Apollo II. Both agencies worked together to avoid a collision that would’ve cost millions of dollars to fix and repair. Their cooperation continued with the Apollo-Soyuz mission and various space station missions.



The space race’s importance in history is great as the two super powers eventually came together to share knowledge and advance much quicker and cost effectively. These two bitter rivals found common ground with the interest in space. It eventually leads to the end of the Cold War. With my next couple of questions I will go more in depth of the significance and importance.