In purely technological terms, the USSR trumped the USA. Sputnik and Gagarin were followed by a series of other firsts: the first woman in space, first lunar impact, first image of the dark side of the moon, first space rover and first space station were all claimed by the Soviets. But in the popular imagination, the Space Race was won when the USA put a man on the moon in 1969.
Three years later, tensions between the two superpowers briefly eased. And three years after that, in 1975, the world watched as an American Apollo module docket with a Soviet Soyuz last capsule. The two commanders shook hands in space. The Space Race was over.
Surviving propaganda posters are a potent reminder of the stratospheric ambitions of the Soviet regime during the Space Race.
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@Human1000 Korolev was in the middle of planning a manned moon mission when he died. Honestly, he was the pillar that held up the Soviet space program. After his death, nobody knew what the hell they were doing.
It really was more than a few years, to be fair. If you're only counting first achievements, that is. Which we probably shouldn't be, but since it was a "race" people tend to. I find that unfortunate.
@BlueMetalChick Fair enough. Apollo required Gemini and the full weight of American engineering filtered through a well funded NASA. I don’t know where the Soviets were, but I always imagine their engineering held together by spit and gum and Soviet style bureaucracy. Cold War cliches, I know.
@Human1000 The Americans had the advantage of sincere passion for space exploration. The Soviet space program had decent funding, but the biggest problem is that Nikita Khrushchev was only interested in its existence as a form of propaganda. Meaning he cared solely that the USSR kept achieving firsts ahead of the United States, and the second that stopped happening, he would cut the funding drastically. Korolev and his friend Valentin Glushkin knew this, and the former overworked himself to the point of severe physical detriment. He died in hospital under mysterious circumstances, possibly from a cancerous tumor, possibly from hemorrhoids, or maybe even a botched surgery. As soon as Korolev died, Khrushchev knew that it was likely that the Soviet Union couldn't stay ahead of the USA anymore, and Glushkin feared he may be thrown in prison, so he fled entirely. After that, the USA took over the top spot in astronautics, culminating in the Apollo moon landings.
So really, the Soviets have themselves to blame. Had they not created circumstances that caused their most talented engineer to quite literally work himself to death, they may have had a much different outcome.
@BlueMetalChick Hard way to go! I think the Space Shuttle was ultimately a disappointment. It was an overreach of early 70s technology.
Unmanned spacecraft have been astonishingly successful. The need for “manned” space flight seems like a huge waste of money. Mars is just too far away. I mean maybe the outer limit of what we’re capable of in 30 years, but why?
@Human1000 For the moment, yeah, unmanned and remote space exploration is definitely what is most useful. I can see the need for manned missions at some point, but right now it's just a little bit too much risk for not quite enough reward. In a couple decades that may change, which I'll admit it pretty exciting to think about even if it's unrealistic.
