The Race For Space - Who Won the Space Race?

The Space Race was the Cold War competition between the United States and the Soviet Union to achieve superior space travel technology, which eventually culminated in the first manned Moon landing and potentially contributed to the collapse of the Soviet Union. Even today, our space programs are built upon the base established during the period. But why was the Space Race so important to both nations, and who ended up winning it?

Pre-Race

The Space Race developed naturally from the arms race between the two Cold War factions. Both the USA and USSR were attempting to keep superiority in ballistic missile technology. The advantage of being able to strike with missiles from space, as well as the potential in satellite reconnaissance, was undeniable to both sides. Technologies like those develop in lockstep with manned space flight, leading to the two greatest superpowers of the time putting a significant portion of their national budgets towards outclassing the other.

A model of Sputnik, the first artificial satellite in Earth orbit.

The earliest serious public interest in space travel started in the Soviet Union with the publishing of a youth magazine in 1951. The US was quick to publish their own. With the public onboard, the nations now had all the support they needed to begin a push in space flight and technology. The Space Race is said to truly have begun on July 29, 1955, when the United States announced it would launch the first artificial satellite into orbit in 1957. Only five days later, the Soviet Union announced it would be launching a satellite “in the near future.” The US ended up launching their first satellite, the Explorer 1, January 31, 1958, but it was too late. The Soviet Union beat them to the punch with Sputnik on October 4, 1957. The USSR had won the first heat of the Space Race.

The Race Begins

The US was not expecting the Soviets to be able to successfully launch the satellite, leading to the Sputnik crisis, a period of anxiety in Western nations stemming from the technology gap between America and the Soviet Union that was perceived due to the launch. This had such an impact at even the every-day level that The New York Times mentioned Sputnik 279 articles in October 1957 alone. That averages to more than 11 different articles a day mentioning the satellite. America’s response was the formation of NASA and the earnest beginning of the Space Race.

Over the following years, the USSR continued to win various firsts. November 1957 saw Laika the dog, the first animal to orbit the Earth aboard Sputnik 2. January 1959 had the first lunar flyby with the Luna 1. September 1959 saw the first unmanned landing on the Moon with Luna 2. August 1960 marked the first animals returned alive from space. But 1961 saw what was perhaps the most important first. On April 12, the cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human in space.

Astronaut Alan Shepard being recovered after returning as the first American in space.

No matter how hard they worked, the US could not catch up with the Soviet Union. They constantly lagged behind. Less than a month after Gagarin’s flight, America sent astronaut Alan Shepard to space aboard the Freedom 7. But the US knew it was losing the Space Race. A bold move was required. On May 25, 1961, three weeks after Shepard’s flight, President John F. Kennedy requested that Congress commit to the goal of sending a man to Moon before the end of the decade. By this point, the Space Race wasn’t just an extension of the arms race. It was a battleground of the Cold War of its own, and both countries had their national pride on the line and the full backing of their people.

The Final Lap

The front of the Cold War now shifted to the Moon. Both powers focused on getting there first, but neither were ready for the accomplishment yet. The United States continued to lag behind the Soviet Union in the stepping stones along the way to the Moon, but America knew that it wasn’t a sprint they were trying to win, it was a marathon. Over the following years, they methodically made their way towards the ultimate goal of a manned Moon landing. The Mercury and Gemini programs were both designed to help test the technology required to bring humans to the Moon. Then came the Apollo Program, which, incrementally, got closer and closer to the fateful first steps on the Moon. By 1966, 4.41% of the US budget was put towards NASA, the highest it’s ever been today. Today, NASA receives about 0.35% of the budget.

On July 20, 1969, millions around the world were glued to their TVs as Apollo 11 successfully landed on the Moon and Neil Armstrong became the first person to set foot on a celestial object. At last, the Americans had managed something before the Soviets. And it was arguably the greatest victory in the Space Race to that point, if not the greatest possible. To many, the Space Race was won in that moment.

Buzz Aldrin, the second man on the Moon next to the flag planted to signal America's first landing.

Initially, the Soviet Union intended to also land on the Moon, but eventually canceled the plans in favor of focusing on a permanent space station. In their eyes, the Space Race was not yet over. In 1971, they launched Salyut 1, the first space station. By this point, the heated competition of the Space Race had begun to die out.

And The Winner Is...

In 1972, the Space Race entered a détente when the US and Soviet Union agreed to work together on the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project, which culminated in the first international docking of spacecraft from two different nations in 1975. From this point forward, a new sense of cooperation began to build. In 1991, the Soviet Union collapsed, partly due to the Space Race adding to the already intense economic strain they were feeling.

The International Space Station. A symbol of cooperation across national boarders.

At that point in time, the United States had been working on the Freedom space station and the Soviets on the Mir-2 space station. In the US, increasing costs put the fate of Space Station Freedom in doubt. And when the Soviet Union collapsed, the new Russian government had to downsize the Mir-2 plans, if not completely cancel them. With both space station projects at risk of cancellation, the two rivals instead decided to join forces and pool their resources in order to create the International Space Station, which remains in operation as a symbol of international cooperation to this day.

So, who won the Space Race? It depends on where you set the finish line. The Soviet Union had far more firsts in the competition, but America managed the biggest first. Alternatively, the Space Race exacerbated the economic strain that led to the collapse of the Soviet Union, so even if they won the battle, the outcome was them losing the war. A final perspective is that neither side won. The Space Race ended in a tie that brought both superpowers together, showing that cooperation was possible between the fiercest of rivals.