How come the US put people on the Moon, but Russian never did?

Question

It doesn't make much sense to me, Russia had always been about 1 step ahead of the US durring the space race. How come they never sent ment to the Moon?

Answer 1

Quite simple, the Russian space program was a shambles, and was geared more to 'firsts' than to a logical progression of technology. They got the first man in space, sure, but after that they had no clear plan of what to do next. Their space program even went off on a pointless tangent designed for no other purpose than to upstage the US when they launched the Voskhod missions, which put the first crew of three men in space and gave the USSR the first spacewalk in history. But it was a sham. The Voskhod spacecraft was a modified Vostok, with extra seats crammed into it. To get three men in space they sacrificed every safety feature, including spacesuits, and almost all meaningful science experiments, simply because there was no space in the capsule when three men were jammed ito it.

They didn't commit to actually having a manned lunar program until the mid-60s, several years after the US had committed to going to the Moon, and they couldn't agree on how to do it and who should be in charge. Two major design bureaus had plans for lunar flight, and until about 1967 they were proceeding in parallel, each needing the funds they could get if the other were cancelled. Instead they were combined so one team's launch vehicle would use the other's spacecraft for circumlunar flights, and so on. The big rocket that was to land men on the Moon suffered because of a feud between the designer of the rocket and the best engine designer in the USSR, and ended up a disaster, with a worrying habit of turning into a ball of fire between the launchpad and orbit.

Because the various agencies in Russia could not agree on how to carry out a sensible manned spaceflight program, and there was no central organisation controlling production, they never managed to get men to the Moon.

Answer 2

They lost the race, pretty much. They were certainly rehearsing and preparing cosmonauts for the moon shot, but some setbacks (the death of Sergei Korolev, their genius rocket designer, and the death of Vladimir Komarov in the first Soyuz launch) caused them to rethink their stuff and reorganize. By that time the Americans were getting better and soon reached the moon; after that, the Soviets more or less gave up and dismantled their moon landing programs.

The idea that they couldn't afford it is ridiculous; the Soviet space program continued well after that (and still continues today, on par with the US space program despite a considerably smaller economy) and had many successes. The moon race was simply a pissing contest, and there's no point competing in a pissing contest when you've already been pissed on.

Answer 3

Russia was first in a number of space milestones. First satellite; first man in space; first _woman_ in space; first spacewalk; first unmanned object to hit the moon.

In the late 60's they encountered unexpected problems with their moon launch vehicle, which they were never able to overcome. There was a huge explosion on the launch pad at one point (which the West did not learn about until many years later), and at that point I think they realized they weren't going to win, and they effectively dropped out of the "race."

It was by no means an automatic guarantee that we would reach the moon first. If the tests had gone a little better for the Russians, or a little worse for the U.S., they might well have reached the moon first.

Answer 4

For what it's worth, one big reason why the Soviets beat us on so many things is that they took more risks. American technology was arguably better than the Soviets, and most of time their accomplishments preceded ours by only a few weeks. Ultimately, it was the superior technology of the American effort which won the race to the moon.

Technically speaking, the Russians beat us to Mars too. The Mars 3 Lander soft-landed a probe before the Vikings but contact was lost after just a few seconds on the surface. It did manage to send back a small piece of a single photo. Because of the short duration, it is generally not considered a successful mission....despite the confirmed landing.

Answer 5

Recently circulated documents from the space race era have shown that the US allowed Russia to achieve spaceflight and to launch a satellite first in order to avoid a conflict over the sovereignity of space.

There was serious concern about the implications of allowing enemy nations' satellites to orbit over your land. After allowing Sputnik to orbit over the continental US, America could safely launch its own satellites without the Soviets arguing that they didn't trust American satellites floating over their country. They had no choice. So the Soviets weren't necessarily "one step ahead." The technology developed at a pretty similar pace in both countries.

As for the moon, most of the other answers nailed it: they were trying, but suffered setbacks including some serious fatalities and disasters.

Answer 6

They ran out of money. Their economy was so artificial, propped up by symbolic projects and communist party rhetoric, that it was near collapse in the 1970s. That's why they began the policy of "glasnost" and "perestroika", opening up to the West because their people were starving and their infrastructure was crumbling. They simply couldn't afford the research and engineering to send someone to the moon. Instead they concentrated on cheaper, simpler Earth orbit projects and pretended that the moon didn't matter any more. (And once the Americans won the "race", it didn't. The last three Apollo missions were cancelled.)

Answer 7

to answer that question, let me ask you one.

who commanded Apollo 12, the second manned mission to the Moon?

Unless you are something of a space buff, you probably don't remember. No one remembers the SECOND man to fly solo across the Atlantic.

Answer 8

They tried several times and their astronauts DIED! or the test rocket exploded on the launch pad. It has something to do with western style competitiveness-openness versus a suppressive regime like the Soviet Union was during those times.

It's exceedingly difficult to do your best when failure means a prison trip to Siberia!

Answer 9

They didn't have the guts! Thats what happens when you try to overcome human spirit with State controlled egalitarianism. I t results in mediocrity.

Answer 10

They tried to do it ,until they realized they could not do it. Besides what would be the purpose of drinking vodka sitting on the moon ,when it could be done on earth.