Did the Russians beat the U.S. into space?

Question

I always thought that the U.S. got into space first, am I wrong?

Answer 1

Here's the rub of the whole thing:

Fact: Sputnik 1 was the first object in space.
Fact: Sputnik 2 was the first man-made object to carry a living being (the dog Laika) into space.
Fact: The Soviets were the first to land an interplanetary probe: Venera landed in Venus well before the Viking and Mariner probes did anything.
Fact: The Soviets were the first to have a human in space, and in orbit: Yuri Gagarin

Fact: The race to the moon was an attention getter for President John F. Kennedy, but it was a one-sided race, as the Soviets never showed any interest in landing anyone on the moon.

Fact: The first inhabited satellite was American, but it was doomed to fall after half of its solar arrays failed to deploy. Ultimately Skylab fell back to Earth in the late 1970's.

Fact: The soviets had several "space stations" up in orbit. Most notably Mir and Salyut. Salyut, however, hardly counts as a station since it was not much more than two Soyuz capsules docked together cockpit to cockpit.

The soviets never did anything just because. They saw a strategic advantage in having men in orbit. Whether it was to direct attacks from space or to see about the viability of life at zero gravity, we may never know. It seems that for the United States it was about prestige more than about national security. Granted, a lot of research ended up being used for military ends. All the ICBMs were developed as results from rocket experiments during the run-up to the Apollo program, and the cancelled Star Wars program of the 80's were children of the US space effort.

But the fact remains. Baikonur cosmodrome is a far busier spaceport than Cape Canaveral. And guess what? The Russians can always say that Sputnik was the first. For them that would be enough prestige.

Answer 2

I'm not sure how old you are, but the older generation knows that after W.W.II (1945) the Soviets got some of the German space scientists and the U.S. brought the others over here. Then the race was on. We used to say that how things went would depend up which side had the better German space scientists. I don't suppose that you ever heard of the German V-1 and V-2 rockets, did you? They were landing on London just as the war was ending, and provided proof that the Germans were well ahead of everyone else in the field. By the way, the Soviets never tried true communism. Instead they had Stalinism, followed by something fairly similar following his death. No one has ever tried true Marxism. If they did, it would not work either. Most people are far too selfish to live in an economic system that relies upon treating others just the way you want them to treat you. Communism is a Utopian dream. To make it work, you'd have to start by hunting down and killing every conservative. I don't think that many of us are ready for that solution yet.

Answer 3

The Soviets beat the U.S. by about 4 months, when they launched Sputnik 1 on October 4, 1957. The U.S. didn't launch Explorer 1 until January 31, 1958.

Answer 4

Sorry, but you're wrong -- the Russians got a satellite into space first (Sputnik) and a few years later they got a man into space (Yuri Gregarin) first. The U.S. put men on the Moon (Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin) first.

Answer 5

The Russians put the first satellite in space. Sputnik one, about the size of a basketball was launched before the Mercury program (USA) began.

Answer 6

The Russians beat the US TO Space, but the US beat the Russians on the moon.

Answer 7

In the so-called Cold War of those times, America and Russia both wanted to have ICBMs that could deliver H-bombs. America worked out how to build a smaller neater H-bomb. Russia couldn't figure that, so they had to build bigger rockets. That's why they were the first with rockets big enough to launch a satellite.

Answer 8

yes you are wrong,the Soviets got the first sattilite in orbit,first living creature in space,first man in space,first spacewalk,first woman in space and the U.S. got the first man around the moon and on the moon

Answer 9

They beat us cause we had to make a pen that would write in zero gravity the russians just said . . "EH we use pencil." haha just kidding but we did spend a rediculous amount of money to make a space pen

Answer 10

Yes Sputnik was first and about a year or so later John Glen went orbiting around the earth BUT we were first to the moon and so far the only humans to do so