What's a natural goalpost for the first "Space race" ?
I submit that a good candidate is: Space. It's in the name. It's not "the Moon race".
You know, getting a person to space and back. Yuri Gagarin, USSR, first successful crewed spaceflight, 1961.
Or, first artificial satellite in space. Sputnik, USSR 1957
I respect the USA's contributions to the space race too, but also I am amused by the USA under JFK picking something left undone, declaring that that as the only victory condition, doing it and then claiming total victory and celebrating it ever since. Got to salvage national pride somehow. Does that "steelman" it?
I submit that a good candidate is: Space. It's in the name. It's not "the Moon race".
You know, getting a person to space and back. Yuri Gagarin, USSR, first successful crewed spaceflight, 1961.
Or, first artificial satellite in space. Sputnik, USSR 1957
I respect the USA's contributions to the space race too, but also I am amused by the USA under JFK picking something left undone, declaring that that as the only victory condition, doing it and then claiming total victory and celebrating it ever since. Got to salvage national pride somehow. Does that "steelman" it?