alt Hacker News> won the space race
Some of it.
Not first to the space, not first to the Moon, not first in human spaceflight, not first in spacewalk, etc.
Replies
JKCalhoun • yesterday at 4:41 PM
Well, President Kennedy kind of spelled out the finish line.
Although, to be specific, he did not say it was a race, but rather something the U.S. should strive for—even specifying a deadline.
tekla • yesterday at 1:09 PM
This is such a bad response. The space race was to get to the moon. There is a reason the USSR dropped any crewed lunar plans instantly when the USA landed (also they couldn't get the N1 to stop exploding) and went all in on satellites. They also kept the crewed tests secret because they knew they were behind the USA and was embarrassing.
https://www.reddit.com/r/AmericaBad/comments/1apgsc9/regardi...
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That remains a ridiculous argument. The thing about a race is you can always think of excuses for not winning. Plans for Mars were being met by all accounts, however Nixon still cancelled them because the Apollo victory was so decisive.