We all heard about it, it was that time when Capitalism was pitted against Communism, Atheism versus God-fearing people, the economic powers of the West versus the ingenuity of the East, and in the very end, Capitalism prevailed over the thoughts of Marx and Lenin and the Communist camp, and it was here that the American dollar sign was proven to be supreme against the repressive Russian ruble.
But is that truly the case? or a distorted view through broken lens?
We have to agree on some things, first, there is no such thing as a "one-man scientific race", for ever since Man learned how to write and read, knowledge was passed down from one mind to another, and from that, the newer, younger generation improved on the thoughts and the creations of the old one, Newton improved on the theory of gravity from the ideas of Kepler, Marco Polo over his Chinese companions, knowledge is not exclusive to a singular nation or creed, but it is a common thing between all of mankind, to simply put it, science is dynamic, it does not care for your beliefs or status, only the quality of your mind.
Secondly, both the United States and the USSR contributed massively to humanity through their "Space Race", and while the United States, a country that mostly came out of the second World War unscathed, with a strong economy, and thousands of foreign specialists , essentially guaranteeing a head start in any sort of missile-related race, the USSR had nothing but the works of Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, a 19th century theorist, and considering the USSR came out of the second world war in a sorry state, it is only a miracle that 12 years later they would put the first satellite in space, and not their Capitalist foes, who were intact and had aced every material standard to essentially guarantee a victory from the get-go.
But as fate had it, the Soviets launched the first satellite, and almost all of the milestones that could be attained in space was reached first by the Soviets, first animal in space, first launch beyond Earth’s orbit, first probe to reach the moon, first spacecraft to be sent to Venus, and the best for last, first man in space, Yuri Gagarin! there would also be others, first woman in space, first spacewalk, first group flight of spaceships, first non-single space flight, first soft landing on the moon, first flight of animals AROUND the moon…
America? First man on moon? Okay, cool, but even if we go by a quantitative and qualitative standard, the Soviets contributed much more than the Americans ever did, where is this victory that the Americans claim to have?
The Space Race was also not a race to the Moon from the get-go, but only because America, to put it bluntly, got clapped in everything else, did they then decide to try and reach for the Moon.
Sergei Korolev is a one-man version of NASA, and this is who I referred to when I talked about ingenuity of the East, the Soviet space program had 5 times less funding than the American ones, yet you would not have guessed that considering all the feats I just mentioned.
But alas, the Soviets would never reach the moon, due to infighting, Korolev refused to use anything but his beloved R-7s, which were definitely not able to go to the moon, for they carried 15 times less cargo than the missiles the Americans had to use, and they barely made it!
And do not even get me started on Valentin Glushko, he purposefully sabotaged the missiles for the N-1, how he was not prosecuted is beyond me, but may that article serve a lesson to you, my reader, never, ever, let pettiness and jealousy get in the way of work or have it cause infighting, for this is exactly what your opponent would want.
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