Who Won the Space Race? | Renegade Cut

A point I should have made in the video. You can't claim the United States won the space race by saying that after everything had already been done, the US started to make more progress, particularly after the Cold War (and therefore the space race) had ended. The space race wasn't an actual race with a finish line. It was called the "space race" because it rhymed, my dudes. If the English word for "space" rhymed with "contest" it would be called that instead. There was no finish line, only a series of achievements.

I am American and I've seen Americans who couldn't answer the question "What country is the Queen of England from?" So, it really comes down to education and marketing and we know where America is globally on both fronts.

Ironically, after the Soviet collapsed, the funding for NASA dwindled. Then China wanted to join the ISS project but vehemently denied by US, so China said "Fuck it, We just make one ourselves." And when they are closer to make one, US got very panicked and before you can say the full name of NASA, the president claimed to increase NASA funding.

Rating of countries by the first launches of artificial Earth satellites:

1. USSR - 1957
2. USA - 1958
3. UK - 1962
4. Canada - 1962
5. Italy - 1964
6. France - 1965
7. Australia - 1967
8. Europe - 1968
9. Germany - 1969
10. Japan - 1970
11. China - 1970
12. Poland - 1973
13. Netherlands - 1974
14. Spain - 1974
15. India - 1975


Rating of countries by the first launches of space satellites with their own launch vehicles:

1. USSR - October 4, 1957
2. USA - February 1, 1958
3. France - November 26, 1965
4. Italy - April 26, 1967
5. Japan - February 11, 1970
6. China - April 24, 1970
7. UK - October 28, 1971
- European Union - December 24, 1979
8. India - 18 July 1980
9. Israel - September 19, 1988
- Russia - January 21, 1992
- Ukraine - August 31, 1995
10. Iran - February 2, 2009
11. DPRK - December 12, 2012
12. Republic of Korea - 30 January 2013
13. New Zealand - January 21, 2018


Rating of countries by the first flights of astronauts:

1. USSR - April 12, 1961
2. USA - May 5, 1961
3. Czechoslovakia - March 2, 1978
4. Poland - June 27, 1978
5. GDR - 26 August 1978
6. Bulgaria - April 10, 1979
7. Hungary - May 26, 1980
8. Vietnam - July 23, 1980
9. Cuba - September 18, 1980
10. Mongolia - March 22, 1981
11. Romania - May 14, 1981
12. France - June 24, 1982
13. FRG - November 28, 1983
14. India - April 3, 1984
15. Canada - October 5, 1984


Ranking of countries by the number of first-of-its-kind spacecraft (remarkable, of historical significance, with achievements that were made for the first time by one of the countries) until 1992:

1. USSR - 21
2. USA - 15
3. EU - 1


Ranking of countries by the number of spacecraft launched to explore the solar system, as well as first-of-its-kind or noteworthy vehicles launched into low Earth orbit before 1992:

1. USSR - 115
2. USA - 84
3. EU - 4
4. Japan - 4
5. Germany - 2
6. UK - 1


Ranking of countries by the number of successful orbital launches (not including emergency and partially emergency) until 1992:

1. USSR - 2278
2. USA - 903
3. Japan - 42
4. France - 39
5. China - 27
6. EU - 13
7. Kenya* - 9
8. India - 3
9. Australia - 2
10. Israel - 2

* Italian naval spaceport "San Marco" located off the coast of Kenya and used to launch American missiles "Scout".


Ranking of countries by the lowest proportion of emergency orbital launches for countries with more than 10 launches before 1992:

1. USSR - 5.54%
2. EU - 7.14%
3. USA - 11.25%
4. Japan - 12.24%
5. France - 14.89%
6. China - 17.65%


Ranking of countries by the lowest proportion of accidental and partially accidental orbital launches for countries with more than 10 launches before 1992:

1. USSR - 7.13%
2. EU - 7.14%
3. Japan - 14.29%
4. USA - 14.65%
5. France - 17.02%
6. China - 20.59%

In all the above rankings, the first places were taken by the USSR, so the USSR won the space race!


There is another version that the US won the space race because they landed a man on the moon, but the USSR did not. But the United States decided to send a man to the moon only because the USSR was not going to send him there and in everything else the United States had no chance to win against the USSR (on April 29, 1961, Wernher von Braun wrote about this in a note to L. Johnson, in which he attempted to answer questions posed by President Kennedy in a memorandum dated April 20, 1961).

In the USSR, they planned to explore outer space with automatic weapons, since it was more efficient and had a lower cost than manned flights. And so sending a man to the moon did not make any sense. The only supporter of the landing of man on the moon was Korolev. But he died before the Americans did. After his death, the new chief designer Glushko, who was opposed to sending a man to the moon, closed the program of manned flight to the moon, the funding of which Korolev was so hard to obtain.


Even a few years after the United States already had a manned flight to the moon program, N. S. Khrushchev, answering questions from journalists, said that the Soviet Union did not plan to send a man to the moon. By that time, the proposals of the engineers of S.P. Korolev included a multi-launch scheme, which involved the assembly of a lunar spacecraft in low Earth orbit from separately launched modules, but they were not approved at the government level. And all this is due to the fact that there was no expediency of a manned flight to the moon.

The USSR reached the moon with the help of a spacecraft 10 years earlier than the United States landed a man on the moon.

The absence of the need for a manned flight to the moon was also reported by President Dwight Eisenhower. He wrote in the Sunday Evening Post that "the race to the moon, the inevitable spending of huge sums and the increase in public debt is the wrong way."

Large financial spending on manned flights to the Moon led to a reduction in funding for the rest of the US space program. As a result, in the end, American launch vehicles were less reliable and more expensive than those of the USSR, which made them uncompetitive. Because of this, NASA later closed the Space Shuttle program and began to rent Russian Soyuz to deliver its astronauts.

Thus, not only did the United States lose to the USSR all stages of the space race, but also because of these losses, it wasted a lot of money to finance manned flights to the moon!

The point of the space race was to technological outdo the other superpower with a greater space achievement and the moon landing is still the biggest achievement

If the soviets landed on the moon first today we whould hear that the space race is still ongoing bc the us wasn't the first on Mars yet.

Humans won the space race. If we still se ourselves through the boundaries of race, religion, and nationality; then us as humans aren’t ready for space exploration beyond our own orbit.

Never occured to me that the space race happening so close to the civil rights era, POC would feel particularly slighted by the whole thing. Interesting insight

I thought the tweet was a critique of capitalism. because capitalism brings Bezos back.
so, socialism didn't bring Bezos back. Socialism 1 x 0 Capitalism.

Nazi germany won the space race

Tom Lehrer ❤️

Id never actually heard bezos' voice before the clip in the beginning of this video. Man does he sound like a cunt (which is fitting)

Are you winning, son?

USA didn't win

Karl Marx said "Religion is the opiate of the masses." Modern capitalism has a far more powerful drug than that, the media.

It's important to note that teh Soviet Union engaged in its own propaganda campaign during the space race, so as to not portray it as a utopian state that was deeply concerned with the advancement of science and space exploration. Both parties used the space race first and foremost as a propaganda tool to say "See? We're better!"

Americans thinking the US won the space race will ALWAYS be entertaining to me 😂

Literally every "first" was Soviet. The only thing the Americans succeeded in was sending men on the moon (and according to some theories even THAT is questionable). 😂 First living organism, first humans (both male and female), first satellite, first space station, first rocket, crust spacecrafts to Mars and Venus... ALL Soviet. Some reality check instead of propaganda will do some people wonders.

Soviets, obviously. First man in space was the finishing line, but they also got first satelite and space station. US got better propaganda movies and the moon a while later.

Even in Philippine Education Curriculum, when we talk Abt space history we only talk Abt the Moon Landing, the moon landing was harder than the other USSR achievements but the USSR has more accomplishments

Idk man. The Space Race did not bring material benefits in the short term but in the Long Term it change Our lives for the better.

In terms of the Moon, The US obviously won and at the end of the day the US still won but the USSR has more achievements and milestones. It's complicated

We have the space race to thank for the internet as we know it existing

now do the elements to the pirates' song

Yeah the states never won, they invented a game and clicked the win button. It's kindergarten tactics. People who play those games cry for mommy at every problem.

None wants to admit USSR won

The USSR won the space race. Here are the achievements of the USSR: the first artificial satellite (1957), the first animal in space (1957), the first photographs of the far side by the Moon (1959), the first man in space (1961), the first woman in space (1963) G.), the first spacewalk (1965), the first landing of a spacecraft (1966), the first landing of a spacecraft on another planet (Venus) (1970), the first space station (1971), the first landing of a spacecraft on Mars (1971).

Sergei Korolev, a supporter of a man landing on the moon, died in 1966, and after that Glushko, appointed general designer of the Soviet space program, decides to stop work on manned lunar programs, since he was a principled opponent of flights to the moon and advocated the creation of orbital near-earth stations for defense goals.

The USSR did not begin to land a man on the moon, as it was not economically feasible. The USSR decided that it was much cheaper to send automatic lunar interplanetary stations and self-propelled vehicles remotely controlled from Earth, which was done by the USSR later. Americans spent $ 28 billion from 1960 to 1973 on the Apollo program. Thus, the USSR was able to master the Moon, much more economically and efficiently than the United States. By the number of scientific problems solved, the USSR won the lunar race. Therefore, the lunar race was also won by the USSR.

You can also compare the total number of successful space launches from 1957 to 1991: the USSR - 2298, the USA - 945. The USSR has 2.43 times more than the USA.

In general, in all respects, the USSR bypassed the United States.

The main winner is humanity! The space race has spurred the development of science, technology and industry. But the main factor in the growth of living standards is the development of fundamental science. The highest growth in labor productivity was in the 50s. Also, high growth was noted in the 60s and 70s. These are the years of the space race. Now the growth of labor productivity is 3 times less than in the 50s.

Many of the devices that we use on a daily basis came to us thanks to space exploration. The most obvious benefit is navigation and communication. Thanks to satellites, we have accurate GPS navigators, internet and satellite TV. Energy-efficient solar panels began to be used not only in close proximity to the Sun, but also on Earth. We have digital camera sensors, airport security scanners, portable x-ray machines, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanners, and many other technologies that have come to us as "secondary benefits" from space exploration.

The infrared thermometer, which became very popular during the Covid-19 pandemic, was originally used in space applications to measure the temperature of stars and planets. Flame-retardant fabric for astronaut spacesuits came in handy for protective clothing for firefighters and the military. Also, the equipment of the astronauts was useful to the athletes. Space technology has also been used to tailor swimsuits that reduce drag, repel water and have almost no weight, and thermal underwear that retains heat and wicks away moisture. The long stay of astronauts away from places where food can be obtained required a new method of preparation with maximum preservation of nutritional properties. This is how freeze-dried food was invented. With this technology, you can save 98% of the nutritional value and only 20% of the original weight of the product. Today, various dishes are sublimated - from food for athletes to borscht, which is familiar to many residents of the post-Soviet space.

Do not forget that the study of space has the goal of preserving the life and health of earthlings. A person can predict the approach of an asteroid and have time to take any action. Also, astronomers can warn us, for example, about approaching solar storms and predict the next big eruption of electromagnetic radiation in the Sun's atmosphere - a solar flare. From space medicine, knowledge about how to prevent many diseases, such as osteoporosis, also comes into everyday life: under the conditions of space flights, astronauts significantly lose bone mass.

Granted if you wanna talk about just “space race” then Russia because they were the first to put a satellite into space that orbited the earth. If it’s a race to the moon then America of course… If it’s a race to “space” then Joe rogan because DMT and interdimensional aliens

Super interesting. It occurs to me that the way the United States got to The Moon was via government taxation and collective action. Something modern conservatives eschew. It was not via private industry. I would like to ask a conservative, “should we have made the collective effort to go to the moon?”

"The US won the space race."
So that was a freaking lie...

Capitalism/USA won the lunar race... Communism/USSR won the space olympics

you're almost completely correct but the space race wasn't ultimately about propaganda or the supremacy of one nation, it was ultimately about class struggle.

Textbook moving of the goalposts.

like I said, gigantic Dick messuring Contest.
The best Country is not the one whit the most Prestige, its who treats its Citizens the best.

Great work, as usual. 👍😎

Ok, but when will americans have the maturity to talk about who reeeeally invented the plane?

"Capitalism, not socialism, sent Jeff Bezos into space today" is a pretty serious condemnation of capitalism.

Up until the moment I just watched this video, I was one of the Americans who would give the same answer of the US winning the Space Race. This video just blew my mind.

Bezos thanking amazon workers is pretty nauseating considering how exploited they are.

did the soviets start their space program to show the superiority of socialism or to push the boundaries of science and technology?

"soviet expansionist aims" and on that day irony exploded

Oh, and don't forget, the US then almost used its space technology to make space a realm of war when Reagan claimed they were on the verge of being able to deploy satellite carried lasers... These, if they had been developed and deployed, would have utterly capsized the mutually assured destruction stalemate of the nuclear arms race and made it more or less inevitable that the Soviets would have launched a spoiling strike of some kind, either nuclear or conventional invasion of NATO countries. Since the deployment of effective orbital lasers would have left the Soviet Union vulnerable to a sudden US nuclear attack. Trump tapping into this dream is the latter day continuation of threatening every single nation on the planet with the American supposed ability to negate any earth based weapon systems. It's a truly destabilizing idea.

I’m not even from America and I’ve only ever learnt about American achievements. There were barely a free lines about sputnik but other than that what’s ingrained in my mind till now is Neil Armstrong- first man in space as the biggest achievement

jeff bezos really heard the song “the fine print” and said yeah lets just do that

who was the guy playing the piano?

I want to dedicate this space flight, in bottle shaped rocket, to the sacrifices of Amazon employees....what a jerk!

did bezos even enter the 'space'? he merely witness space from the border through his window & instantly returned? capitalism sent him to the borderline?

So who actually won the space race? (Nazi) Germany, by proxy.

I know it may seem pedantic, but i would certainly add the gemini 8 achievements of Rendezvous and docking to the USAs list.

I was listening to this video while I was cooking and then I hear so what do you think of your best friend capitalism now Amy? Lol I had a double take cuz my name is Amy 🤣 I had to rewind 😂

A friend of Tom Lehrer is a friend of mine