Would anything be different if Russia won the space race?

Answer 1

"For the first living creatures in space, US launched dogs into the captured V-2 rockets in 1946. The Russians were the first ones to launch living beings on their own. They launched a dog in 1957 in Sputnik 2 but technology did not exist to retrieve it so it died. They launched two more dogs later on in 1960 who orbited the Earth and returned. The Russians also sent turtles to fly around the moon in Zond 5 in 1968. The Russians also sent the first human in space who was Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin in 1961 on Vostok 1 in 1962. The first dual-manned mission was also Russian and the first woman in space was also Russian. The Russians beat us to a launch with a multiple-personnel crew which did not have to wear space suits. The Russians also did the first space walk in 1965. The Russians were the first to reach the vicinity of the moon in 1959 and also to land a probe on the moon later in 1959. So as you can see, the Russians clearly kicked our behind in the Space Race. The only exception is Neil Armstrong landing on the moon first but that only happened because of USSR officially announcing that they were not concerned with putting a man on the moon." What the US did was create an arbitrary goal (putting man on the moon) AFTER they won it so they could feel good. They lost all the other "races", such as putting the first satellite in space, along with everything else mentioned above. The Russians DID win the "space race". But nothing would really change if the US won. The Yahoo!Answers information is misleading at best. The U.S. never launched dogs into space. http://www.onpedia.com/encyclopedia/Animals-in-space The first dual-manned mission was also Russian and the first woman in space was also Russian - publicity stunts with no planned follow-up. The Russians may have beat us to a launch with a multiple-personnel crew which did not have to wear space suits with Voskhod 1 but it was little more than a dangerous attempt to upstage the United States' upcoming two-seat Gemini missions. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voskhod_1 The Russians also did the first space walk in 1965 in an attempt yet again to upstage publicly announced US plans but nearly ended in disaster when Leonov found himself unable to re-enter the Voskhod 2 spacecraft due to a hurriedly and poorly designed suit. http://www.astronautix.com/flights/voskhod2.htm The Russians were the first to reach the vicinity of the moon in 1959 but did not successfully land a probe there until January 1966. http://nssdc.gsfc.NASA.gov/planetary/lunar/lunarussr.html The Vosktok program was technological dead-end in which the cosmonauts had to eject and parachute to earth before the spacecraft landed. Voskhod was an adapted Vosktok without an ejection seat that crammed three and then two cosmonauts with an inflatable airlock that was a deathtrap waiting to happen - a stopgap until the Soyuz could fly. The first Soyuz caught up with the Soviets and ended in the death of its pilot. http://space.about.com/cs/deceasedcosmonaut/a/soyuz1crash.htm The Russians clearly did not kick our behind in the Space Race. The USSR only officially announced that they were not concerned with putting a man on the moon after their N-1 booster failed repeatedly. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N1_rocket