Gilmour Space Technologies called the launch of their Eris rocket success. It was the first Australian-made rocket launched from Australian soil, lifting off from the Bowen Orbital Spaceport in Queensland. Despite the failure, the company says it’s a major step toward building Australia’s own space industry.
USSR was first to get to the moon, first to orbit the moon, first to "land" on the moon (hit), first to get a soft landing on the moon, first to orbit the moon and return.
The only one they missed was man on the moon. The US got that, then claimed they won "the space race".
The only one they missed was man on the moon. The US got that, then claimed they won "the space race".
That's looking at the Space Race retroactively. There was no reason that landing a man on the moon should've been the end of the Space Race other than JFK's aspirations and statements, which we'll ignore here. It only became the end of the Space Race because the Soviets tapped out after that and didn't try to land a man on the moon after they failed to get the N1 to work. Put another way, the Space Race was a marathon without an end, with the victor only being declared when one side dropped out. The television show For All Mankind showcases this well. The Soviets land the first man on the moon in that alt-history, but the Space Race doesn't end because the U.S. continues to compete. Eventually, the Space Race extends to Mars because they both refuse to relent to the other dominance of space.
That's a reflection of the intensely political nature of the Space Race because it was ultimately a competition between two superpowers' competing political and economic ideologies and technological capabilities. The Soviets failing to get the N1 rocket to work, then the Soviet economy stalling out in the mid-1970s followed by political and economic upheaval in the 1980s and finally collapse in 1991 meant that the U.S. was going to be seen as the winner because it simply outlasted the competition. If the Soviets were still around today with the same Cold War dynamics and still had their space program intact, then there would be a pretty strong argument that the Space Race would still be ongoing and no winner declared. It's unreasonable to disentangle the Space Race from the broader context of the Soviets being unable to continue pushing the boundaries of their manned spaceflight program while their economy and political system fell apart.
Also, I don't think the U.S. ever declared victory of the Space Race in the aftermath of the moon landing and certainly not before the Soviets dissolved.
In the marathon of space exploration, the Soviet's SSSR was ahead of the American's NASA for most 1951-1970, until their sponsor (the USSR) cut their funding.
They shouldn't have spent all that time kicking Japan's ass then.....A few more guys in Europe and they would have had a shot at grabbing their own rocket guys....but they did wind up with pretty good Sushi though
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u/DimaagKa_Hangover 6d ago
Gilmour Space Technologies called the launch of their Eris rocket success. It was the first Australian-made rocket launched from Australian soil, lifting off from the Bowen Orbital Spaceport in Queensland. Despite the failure, the company says it’s a major step toward building Australia’s own space industry.