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The UK got a decent amount of info about both programmes in the media. Being of the West there was more, and more detail about Nasa missions, but we didn't seem

The UK got a decent amount of info about both programmes in the media. Being of the West there was more, and more detail about Nasa missions, but we didn't seem to lack awareness of Russian activities. Especially as they got so many of the firsts. I remember discussions comparing the Soyuz and Nasa lunar rovers as they were very different approaches. Same for the space stations, and obviously there was the Soyuz-Nasa mission where the two sides docked in orbit. How much we didn't get to know about I couldn't say!

m0zg 7y ago
I feel like at least in the US very little is known about the Venera missions (and Venus landings, there were several; 2 of the motherships then also approached a comet using Venus' gravity assist), and Buran, which has flown and landed only once, but fully autonomously in 1986 (something we haven't seen until Boeing X-37 24 years later). The UK might have a more balanced view of events as a non-participant of the hotly contested space race. Hardly anyone in the US today knows about Gagarin (first man in space), not to mention Leonov (first spacewalk) or any of the other Soviet "firsts" besides Sputnik. Which, to me, is understandable, the Moon landings were such dramatic overkill that they loom large in the public consciousness and overshadow all the other "firsts", even now after five decades, and rightly so.
- creato 7y ago
  > The UK might have a more balanced view of events as a non-participant of the hotly contested space race. Hardly anyone in the US today knows about Gagarin (first man in space), not to mention Leonov (first spacewalk) or any of the other Soviet "firsts". Hardly anyone in the US today knows of comparable US astronauts either.
- twic 7y ago
  And in true British style, even fewer people in the UK know that the UK launched its own satellite on its own rocket!

m0zg 7y ago

I feel like at least in the US very little is known about the Venera missions (and Venus landings, there were several; 2 of the motherships then also approached a comet using Venus' gravity assist), and Buran, which has flown and landed only once, but fully autonomously in 1986 (something we haven't seen until Boeing X-37 24 years later). The UK might have a more balanced view of events as a non-participant of the hotly contested space race. Hardly anyone in the US today knows about Gagarin (first man in space), not to mention Leonov (first spacewalk) or any of the other Soviet "firsts" besides Sputnik. Which, to me, is understandable, the Moon landings were such dramatic overkill that they loom large in the public consciousness and overshadow all the other "firsts", even now after five decades, and rightly so.

creato 7y ago
> The UK might have a more balanced view of events as a non-participant of the hotly contested space race. Hardly anyone in the US today knows about Gagarin (first man in space), not to mention Leonov (first spacewalk) or any of the other Soviet "firsts". Hardly anyone in the US today knows of comparable US astronauts either.
twic 7y ago
And in true British style, even fewer people in the UK know that the UK launched its own satellite on its own rocket!