The Post Quiz: Who Won the Space Race? Answers
Created | Updated Jan 22, 2017
Oh, so long ago, that space race.
Who Won the Space Race? Answers
The answer to the quiz title – Who won the space race? – is simple. We all did. If it took a contest to get those governments to cough up the resources for exploration, we can live with that. Humans got there.
| FIRST | Russian/Soviet | USA |
| First 'rocket equation' | Russian. 1879, Konstantin Eduardovich Tsiolkovsky. That's why they named a ship after him in Star Trek. | |
| First liquid fuel rocket | USA. Robert Goddard, on 16 March 1926. Flew for 2.5 seconds, wow. | |
| First satellite | USSR. Sputnik started beeping in October 1957, and scared the USA half to death. The space race was on. | |
| First human in space | USSR. 12 April 1961, Yuri Gagarin. 'The Earth is blue.' Who knew? | |
| First scientific discovery by spacecraft | USA. 31 January 1958. Van Allen Belts. Cool; this is good for something. | |
| First artificial planet of the Sun | USSR. January 1959. Lunar 1 flew right past the moon and made history. | |
| First woman in space | USSR. Valentina Tereshkova, in June 1963. One giant leap for womankind. | |
| First humans on moon | USA. Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, 20 July 1969. They came in peace. | |
| First spacecraft to pass Jupiter | USA. 3 December 1973, Pioneer 10 passed Jupiter on its way out of the solar system. Boldly going. | |
| First international cooperative space flight | USSR AND | USA. Finally doing it together. Apollo and Soyuz docked on 18 July 1975. Astronauts and cosmonauts had dinner together. Pass the borscht, tovarich. |
Now, aren't you glad you know all that? Isn't ancient history fun?
