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>Also the Soviet Union was winning most of the relevant milestones in space (first satellite, first animal in orbit, first human, first woman, first space walk,
by dTal 7y ago
>Also the Soviet Union was winning most of the relevant milestones in space (first satellite, first animal in orbit, first human, first woman, first space walk, etc), and this was a great source of national pride. Beating them had great propaganda value.
I would rather say that the Soviet Union was winning the irrelevant milestones, precisely for the propaganda value. First woman in space means nothing, really - you put a woman on your spaceship, wham, easy win. The moon landings forced the USA to tackle real engineering challenges - rendezvous and docking, piloted spacecraft and piloted orbit changes, functionally useful EVAs, keeping humans alive in space for long periods, etc.
- novaRom 7y agoOh boy, you underestimate the power of feminism. First woman in space is a lot, especially if you go back to 60th of previous century.
- dTal 7y agoThat's the point - it's a propaganda win, not a technical achievement in any way. Not to belittle the symbolic importance of it, but cmon - first dog murdered by being launched in a rocket, first time running two manned missions at the same time, first nap in space - a large proportion of the Soviet "firsts" were just low-complexity stunts. One of the last major "firsts" was "first organisms to circle the moon" - they barely squeaked this one in a few months before Apollo 8, and they accomplished it by shoving some tortoises into a Soyuz (no food or water required!).
- DiogenesKynikos 7y agoFirst satellite and first man in space are not irrelevant. They're very challenging engineering problems. First woman in space is technically easy, but it does say something about the two cultures that the Soviet Union put a woman in space almost immediately, whereas the United States didn't do so for decades.