Who Won the Space Race? - Cold War DOCUMENTARY

Our historical documentary series on the history of the Cold War continues with a video in which we discuss the space race and who won it.
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[@ekmalsukarno2302]

To David and the entire Cold War crew, it would mean a lot to me if you made these following videos: - Argentina during the rule of Juan Peron - Thailand's on-and-off military governments and lese-majeste laws - Gastarbeiters (foreign migrant workers) in both West and East Germany - The Paris massacre of 1961 (related to the Algerian War) - Two Korean organisations in Japan (the pro-Pyongyang Chongryon and the pro-Seoul Mindan) - Bantustans (black homelands) in Apartheid-era South Africa - The history of Mongolia as a communist state during the Cold War - The history of Macau during the Cold War and how it contrasts with Hong Kong's Cold War history Thank you very much and please accept my requests.

[@earthwormscrawl]

I'd love to see an episode on how the Berlin corridors were managed. Were they considered sovereign western territory? Were the Soviets able to stop, search, and/or seize traffic over these routes? Were there any escape attempts by East Germans to enter the corridors? Was there concern by the Soviets that west would use them as an alternate entry point for spies into the eastern block?

[@berniekatzroy]

I'd also like to see all of these

[@Barbossa778]

Good topics

[@scienceisreal779]

How about western defections to the east

[@decem_sagittae]

All great topics. I support this comment.

[@tompegorinno5141]

I am escaping to the one place that hasn't been corrupted by capitalism! SPACE! - Premier Cherdenko.

[@user-sm4rp4iw8i]

I'm a big fan of your videos and subscribed a while back. However, I really think you need to edit the remark about Gus Grissom. It was proven he did not pull the emergency lever as the capsule was subsequently recovered showing the explosive bolts. Also, to do so would have severely bruised/injured his hand. He had no such injury when he was taken aboard the ship after splashdown. He was one of the best astronauts in NASA, and would have likely been amongst the first to walk on the moon had the Apollo 1 fire not occurred, as Deke Slayton originally wanted a original Mercury man to be the first to land on the moon.

[@zachbaird4717]

Space race was absolutely my in to a decade long history obsession, Love this from you

[@sokratesz]

I really love that quote about Glenn insisting that Johnson verify the calculations.

[@johnsteiner3417]

It's ironic that the Soviet space program had a culture of rival fiefdoms while the U.S. pulled together for the common cause.

[@johncongdon7398]

There was some minor in fighting in the USA space program, basically just company's fighting for contracts and politics in the US held back Von Braun for over a decade.

[@arnbo88]

On June 14th, 1949; The USA sent a macaque (Albert II) 134 km into space in a suborbital A4 (V2) rocket test launch. This passed the Karman line although he did not orbit the earth and was killed when his chute failed to open. Beautiful streamer.

[@siljeff2708]

40:00 that edit volume was super loud, warning to those with headphones

[@CakeboyRiP]

Do you have a new editor? You might want to do some quality control. Love the quality of your content. You deserve more subs

[@vincentleedy2933]

The sinking of Gus Grissom's Mercury capsule was proven to not be his fault.

[@wkadams88]

This. He was initially blamed for the accident; it was claimed he'd accidentally pressed an emergency jettison plunger. On a later Mercury flight, Wally Schirra did it on purpose, injuring his hand to prove Grissom couldn't have pressed the plunger on accident without injury, which Grissom did not have.

[@dylan8495]

​@@wkadams88 Then tonfuether drive it home the capsule was recovered and I believe they found further evidence to support that the hatch blew on its own.

[@landmonitor-lsd5634]

This is a great topic - just started listening and glad it’s longer!

[@morskojvolk]

15:30 Slander. There's no evidence that Grissom was at fault, in fact there's considerable evidence that he _wasn't._ Tom Wolfe's book The Right Stuff is largely responsible for that trope, even though it was widely accepted within the space community that the fault lay with the spacecraft.

[@bernadmanny]

Godspeed bell button, Godspeed.

[@gregcampwriter]

The air pressure difference on the sides of the hatch are a parallel in Bondarenko's death and that of the Apollo 1 astronauts.

[@paulm7842]

12:06 Bondarenko's desth is all the more tragic because of the secrecy - had NASA been aware of what happened, the Apollo 1 fire could have been avoided.

[@michaelpelley2815]

Well done!!!

[@Komokoto]

Thank you for this interesting video, but please don't do other videos with the background music being played continuously nor with this intensity and volume in comparison to David's voice.

[@Numba003]

As a lifelong space nerd, I very much appreciated this episode! It's astounding what these people were able to accomplish in such a short time. Thank you for this! God be with you out there everybody. ✝️ :)

[@mmhuq3]

Thank you...

[@ethanpf449]

More long videos please

[@mat3714]

Algorithm P.S . I usually listen while doing stuff around the house and for the first time had stop what i was doing to get closer to my phone because it was hard to understand. I think it's the background music. Still, great job as always.

[@benkamelmayssem5780]

The most amazing episode ever, when humans were cooperating to challenge the space. Leaders who had a common sense for humanity...

[@charlesdelusignan7909]

Informative as always - though the background music is annoying

[@lloydzufelt7514]

IMO in the top 5 best show on KZbin

[@andrewmoore3977]

Long time subscriber and love the channel but the background is too loud in this episode and distracts from Davids narration ov the story

[@kingbubba2371]

As always, your work is awesome!

[@brisbanebill]

The narration was excellent, but the background music is too loud.

[@jamesfletcher4382]

Sound seemed a bit glichy on this one. Very interesting though.

[@bethmarriott9292]

When the weekly video you're looking forward to ends up being about the SPACE RACE AND super long 😍 #doublewin

[@ACPushkin]

45:03 You're only off by 3 orders of magnitude there, buddy. 😂

[@JayWarner-vm3hv]

Thank you great video

[@BlockoStudios]

The sinking of Grissom's capsule wasn't due to a mistake by him, though, as far as I recall? Technical malfunction was the official line, was it not?

[@gregcampwriter]

The prohibition on nuclear weapons in space should be modified to allow for study in nuclear propulsion.

[@shooter2055]

I use Dryden Road here at Dayton, Ohio almost every day. Sadly, I'd be optimistic to state that one of one hundred residents know who he was.

[@paillettecnc]

Great episode but I find the music too loud, it covers your voice. For non native english speakers it is difficult to hear what you say sometimes.

[@iplayfhorn]

There was no "misstep" by Grissom; there was a short of some kind of malfunction that caused the hatch to blow prematurely.

[@akagi007]

Content as usual spectacular even a lot facts was known for me, but greatly compressed, filtred and destiled like finest... lets say Korolev vodka :-D What I must appreciate is a new style of editing - efects on still photgraphs are performed well and with caution (not like cheap eastern europe circus but more like Circ de Soleil :-) But I have one negative remark... new dynamic sound is not bad... maybe its good, but final mastering isnt so well balanced and high pitch notes are really annoying and knocking the narration to the backgroungd... have tryied laptop speakers (very bad), studio pro headphones - better but still music is disturbing me... and the tempo is not constitent with naration and rhym of the cuts... as my friend is saying first advice for free my, second I will send an invoice :-D

[@ItsJustCartier]

12:36 Damn that sounds like the worst sight to see while being helpless.

[@kashimokid]

The N1 did “fly”. It just blew up a few minutes after launch. Its engines were very advanced and were supposed to be destroyed after the N1 was canceled. They were not and after the fall of the USSR, were used for a US rocket in the 1990s/2000s.

[@smegheadGOAT]

Musk got some cheap to start space-x

[@ferky123]

​@@smegheadGOAT the ULA used the motors.

[@theOrionsarms]

Those old engines proved again to not be reliable, they exploded both on Kistler aerospace K1 rocket, first and only flight and on the Orbital ATK Antares 100 , so Kistler get out of business and ATK replaced them with the newer RD-191, also made in Russia.

[@bendafyddgillard]

An inspirational story of global human cooperation which continues to this day, despite what's happening here on Earth. Competition doesn't have to be cut-throat or winner-take-all. It can be friendly and mutually beneficial. Who won the space race? Humanity. A small terminological point: nowadays the word "crewed" is preferred to "manned". It's unclear whether that would strictly apply to Sputnik 2 and the other animal experiment flights. Also, let it not go unnoticed that you adopted a Moscow stray. Probably a story, if not one of the cold war.

[@dr.victorvs]

The Genesis thing reminded me of ReligionForBreakfast's excellent video on the American Civil Religion. Greatly recommended to all who are into social sciences and want to explore the US's relationship with religion and geopolitics.

[@twistedyogert]

I am always fascinated by how different the Soviet and US space technology was despite trying to achieve the same goal. Also, RIP Laika

[@vincegranato4505]

Very informative. But the background music is at a level of distracting your video.

[@peterloohunt]

Great video but the background music is pretty distracting and annoying... unlike previous ones.

[@johnsteiner3417]

"I'll have to keep this handy... for close encounters." ~Corporal Dwayne Hicks/Major General Alexei Leonov

[@jarco5000]

Great video, thanks for making it. Constructive criticism: in large portions of the video, the music is quite loud, and it distracts from the content. Still, awesome work, thanks!

[@KUSHxKiNG]

I get why we used animals so if it went wrong no human had to make that sacrifice but if we had the technology to get to space I know we had the tech to make a machine that would show death if the environment was to extreme for humans🤨 almost like those little tabs they will put on fragile packages that will show a red line if a certain amount of Gs were experienced. I know we treated our tear animals a lot better than the Soviets but it don’t matter how well they were treated that’s another argument the fact some people said you know what let’s put a dog or chimp or something living to see if it’s safe for humans

[@pablonicolasangulo4356]

No one ever mention anything about what cool are the final phrases about the Bell Bottom.

[@enigma12140]

Stop putting loud background music! It is really hard to hear you sometimes :/

[@bigsarge2085]

👍👍

[@Dave_Sisson]

God speed Bell Button.

[@bethmarriott9292]

RIP LAIKA 😭🌈🐾💔

[@SHGames97]

Gigachad central boiyo

[@alexozanne2295]

Can we please discard the distracting and not very good music? Thanks!

[@gleedads]

So, ah... At 8:32 "...because these men were seen as having ..." And Valentina Tereshkova is right there in the picture. Yes, most of the first cosmonauts were men, recruited from among military pilots. But several women were selected for the program, at least partly (largely? entirely? debatable...) for the propaganda value of being the first country to put a woman in space. I'm not sure what the background of the others was, but Valentina Tereshkova was not a military pilot. She was a textile worker, but had experience in parachuting which was seen as relevant. The female cosmonaut candidates were recruited into the military, and promoted to officers upon completion of the cosmonaut training. So, by the time they completed the training they were military pilots, but they were not selected from among the ranks of existing pilots.

[@TheUglyGnome]

We'll launch the first artificial satellite and win the space race ... oh crap! We'll launch the first man into space and win the space race ... oh crap! We'll perform the first space walk and win the space race ... oh crap! We'll send a man to the Moon and and win the space race ... WE FINALLY WON THE SPACE RACE!

[@julianshepherd2038]

1911 to 61 was too historical on Russia

[@qZbGmYjS4QusYqv5]

And nothing happened in the States at the time. Literally nothing. Boo-hoo, poor imperialistic Russia

[@justjoking5841]

Technically speaking the Nootzis won by breaching the Karman Line lol

[@Mrgunsngear]

🇺🇸

[@westrim]

Everyone won the space race, with all the fantastic technology that was invented or accelerated in the process.

[@mattmcewan2550]

Love the DALL-E ChatGPT4 cover pic!

[@LibertarianLeninistRants]

The true winner of the Space Race was humanity all along

[@jedibusiness789]

The space race was a political statement through technological achievement. While Russian were ahead at first, it was Americans completing rendezvous with Gemini that solidified our 1st place position.

[@darthdarthjinx]

I Like the Series "For All Mankind" fictionalize what if the Sovyet won the first space race and the Space race continue to 21st century

[@propagafun4368]

The winner of space race is humanity. Many of space race' technology are used in our technology devices

[@stanislavkostarnov2157]

in the end the one really victorious in the space race was space itself... despite all the super-optimism and faith of Science-Fiction, man was as of now defeated in his attempt to become an interstellar race, or part of any Galactic Community... it can be said that on such & such points the USSR clearly won, or, such & such US victory make them the clear leader, but in honesty, we have not (in either case) managed to settle or use industriously a single planet in our solar system, indeed, not even setting foot on any except our own moon!

[@boyscouts83712]

"One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind" Niel Armstrong, landing on the moon

[@dr.victorvs]

That's the botched version which makes no sense at all 😂 The quote NEEDS to be "one small step for a man"--without the "a", "men" takes the same meaning as "mankind" and he's essentially saying "one small step for mankind, one giant leap for mankind"--which, to be fair, does sound poetic, but is one of those things that sound really cool but are actually semantically meaningless. Do we know for sure that he botched it? There was an analysis back then that his radio might have failed while he was pronouncing the "a".

[@dr.victorvs]

I'd like to add, though, that landing on the moon was NEVER the goal of the space race. In the view of the Soviets, the US lost the space race, then moved the goalpost to a high cost, militarily useless thing the USSR wouldn't want to do to say it won.

[@Wustenfuchs109]

@@dr.victorvs Mostly true except the part that Soviet Union did not want to do a Moon landing. They did - it was just never a priority - because, as you said, there was little to no military use or scientific use for that matter. It was a secondary project. When USA focused on the Moon, USSR focused on space station programs, a completely different branch of space exploration and settlement... which is why they were the first ones with a space station in orbit, and the first ones to make a modular space station that serves as a basis for the biggest stations (ISS and Tiangong) to this day. So Soviets DID plan to go to the Moon, they just never took it as a priority or the end goal that they need to reach to win something.

[@christopherconard2831]

Wasn't that Louie Armstrong?

[@julianshepherd2038]

​@@christopherconard2831yeah with Buzz lightear

[@Shinzon23]

Man if only 'for all mankind's" timeline was ours

[@MrAlsachti]

@19:00 Having read the book and then the movie, I feel important to note that the film is barely an adaptation of the (non-fiction) book and an insult to the real women the main characters are based on. I could spend the entire film criticizing every single scene. The book was interesting (albeit not always captivating), particularly because it gave an insightful view on racial segregation (showing that segregation didn't even work on its purely logical premises, that how it also affected white people in a negative way, how the Cold War put pressure on the USA to fight against this racist system... etc...). The movie is mainly a piece of fiction that contradicts the book and history. This is how Hollywood want us to see sexism and racism: in a childish, ultra-simplistic way. Simply said, the movie is just a big pile of shit.

[@padawanmage71]

As a fan of the show ‘For All Mankind’, one wonders how far we’d have gone had the Race continued…Mars? Jupiter? Beyond the Infinite? Soviets send up Valentina Tereshkova, but the US couldn’t match it until sending up Sally Ride in 1982. Leonov showing off his shotgun: “I like to keep this handy, for close encounters…”

[@deshaun9473]

Everyone knows Laika the Space dog 🐕 won the Space race. 😅

[@Nobody.exe50]

All of a sudden i wanna see For All Mankind, fly, fly ,lol

[@NonyaBusiness-is3fc]

The USSR won, they sent the first man in space and that was it, the race was over

[@christiangregersjrgensen3828]

Uf, that mic is being very suppressed by the compressor - and the de-esser must have been disappeared.

[@cinecope]

turn down the music, sheesh

[@jpotter2086]

"'Pale Blue Dot' was taken at a distance of 29,400km ..." er, what? that's not even a geostationary orbit distance, would be a brilliant blue medium close shot of the globe! 'Pale Blue Dot' was taken When Voyager 1 was 6 *billion* km from the sun!

[@lorensims4846]

I was a Sputnik baby who grew up with the American Space Program. The Soviets won the Space Race by putting the first satellite into orbit, putting the first man in space, and at the same time, the first man in orbit. They also made the first space walk. Kennedy moved the goalposts and gave us a national goal. The Soviets didn't want to play. This was a ballistic missile race. Only the Saturn and N1 were designed specifically for manned spaceflight. The rest of the rockets were all ballistic missiles that in other places carried nuclear warheads aimed at the other side. What I saw was schools being built right and left, with flashy new audio-visual equipment and learning New Math. In sixth grade we were bussed across town to the Black school to be taught New New Math from the guy who had invented New Math. We beta-tested the Plato Learning System on video terminals at our school connected by cable to the big computer, the Illiac at the university. We were taught with a strong focus on math and science, specifically to be able to do our part to help move America toward the future, what would later become known as STEM. Nixon hated Kennedy ever since the 1960 presidential race and ended Kennedy's space program in preference to something completely different that he could put his own name on. I refuse to watch that alternate history show on AppleTV+, "For All Mankind" because it starts off with the preposterous blasphemy that the Soviets got to the Moon before we did. This was simply not possible. Project Gemini taught us the astronautical skills we would need to be able to go to the Moon. I always had the feeling that our astronauts were flying on a wing and a prayer. That Apollo 8 mission was amazing, and a delightful Christmas present. As the telegram they received upon their return said, "Thank you for saving 1968."

[@feartheamish9183]

Congress hears about the Military wanting to nuke the moon and just says "No".

[@mattsingh_]

To the moon, the US. The USSR may not have publicly accepted the challenge, but they built and tried fly the N1, enough said. Accumulating nuke capabilities (arguably the real goal of both superpowers): Close, could be called either way depending on when. Human spaceflight generally: The USSR. US had makeshift Skylab, which didn't come close to Salyut/Mir. So it depends how you define the race...

[@Wustenfuchs109]

That's the thing - no one defined it or set one specific point to be the end goal. Except Americans. They decided, once they landed on the Moon first, that that's it - race won, race over, USA winner. Why? Could not USSR declare that every one of their firsts previously up to that point was the end and that they are the winners of the Space Race? They could, but that would not make sense in the same way that declaring that Moon landing was the end of the race. I mean, obviously Americans will always declare that the first thing in the line of seconds they did win is the end - which is a typical American behavior. It would be like you and me play chess, I win 5 times in a row, then you win the 6th game, and you declare yourself the winner of the whole thing and the end of the match. That's just plain stupid XD A reasonable argument can be made that no one won, because it wasn't a race with a set end goal. You could also argue that humanity is the only winner, as both sides did things to push us all further into space. Or you could argue that it was the Soviets who won the race, because they were the first to launch the object into an orbit. You could even argue that Germans won because V2 was the first object to reach space (for a brief moment). But there is no objective argument one could make to say that Americans won the Space Race over everyone else. Because the end point of that race is completely arbitrary and taken only because it was the first thing in the "race" that Americans actually won over everyone else. It is extremely petty way of looking at things.

[@DOSFS]

@@Wustenfuchs109 Same as the USSR kinda wants to show and boast the 'technological superiority' of their socialist system when they did the first satellite in space that started the 'space race'. It is just human constructed without any real defined goal from the beginning only which one each side considers 'the goal'. Both sides have this kind of thinking from the start, space is just another way to try to win the other out. What is the goal? What defines the goal? What count as space-related? There is just no real singular answer. If it is just about going further or overall technological advantages at the end of the Cold War then yes, the US won (Manned: Apollo, unmanned: Voyager) and Apollo is still truly THE achievement that no other can replicate to this day, but other than that the question you chose to count is more important than the answer.

[@Wustenfuchs109]

@@DOSFS I'd just argue you on the topic of "no other can replicate to this day" regarding manned landings on the Moon. Are you sure no one can? Really? After more than 50 years of technological development?! No one did replicate it for the same reason USA stopped their missions as well - it was pointless. To go to the Moon just so you can say you went is indeed a stunt, that costs a lot. You need something that would piggyback off that mission, something that will make a manned mission worth it. Which is why only NOW are nations once again considering Moon landings. Not because no one could do it since (that is extremely arrogant to say), but because only now something appeared that warrants the manned missions with a long-term purpose. Space industry sector grew large enough, and technology developed enough that creating an outpost on the Moon makes sense - for future Mars missions and starting fabrication process for space sector needs. Back in the 1960s and 1970s manned Moon landing was a dead end. There was nothing at the time that could follow it, use it as a stepping stone. There were no viable avenues from that point. Which is why USA stopped it - it was a nice milestone, very expensive, but at those times it was a dead end. Now, when we have an actual reason to start going to the Moon and building rudimentary infrastructure and human presence - now everyone is going back all of a sudden. It wasn't a question of whether someone can replicate the manned Moon landing since, it was always about the utility of the thing. Even secondary space powers have the capability (tech and money) to pull it off, there is just no way to justify it. Person A: "Oh look, we spent tens of billions of $ and landed on the Moon!!!" Person B: "That's great! So, what now?" Person A: "What do you mean? We landed on the Moon!" Person B: "Yes, and what happens now? We invested tens of billions of $ into a project, what is our return on the investment? Please don't tell me it is news headlines for a couple of weeks and sample return that could have been done for 1/10 of the cost?!" Person A: "Well..." That is basically how the whole thing goes. Just because you physically CAN do something, does not mean that you will or that you should. More than ability, you need a very good reason. I know that we the plebs think it is awesome and cool and it is justified to spend tens of billions of $ of government money to get bragging rights... but politicians are not that naive. If they are going to push that much money into a project, they need a damn good reason for it. USA could justify it for one reason only - over a decade of humiliation in science and engineering that had to be put to a stop. Which is why the project was funded and stopped as soon as that goal was reached.

[@oldesertguy9616]

You didn't mention the Space Shuttle, which was actually a successful program, the Voyager 1 and 2 missions, and actually setting a rover down on Mars. One more thing, the USSR hasn't existed since 1991, so they've been out of the race for over 30 years.

[@mattsingh_]

@@oldesertguy9616 The Shuttle was a long program, and had several positives, but its aims were to make space travel cheap and routine, and it achieved neither, while also being dangerous

[@baumgartnerwm]

Dude! Volume control. Can you equalize the sound volume, you're killing me here.

[@TheScottytr6]

The first major hurdle the Americans and the Russians had to overcome in the space race was to learn German!

[@scottkrater2131]

Nonsense, the US would have gotten there on their own without the Germans. According to the Germans, it just would have taken a little longer.

[@SJ-bl3uw]

what are you talking about, nobody learns the language of the loosers

[@SHGames97]

You won the space race.

[@tomdis8637]

If Wernher von Braun WAS a Nazi, he wasn’t a particularly enthusiastic or prominent one politically. It reminds me of the case of Werner Heisenberg, the father of a personal friend with whom I had many probing conversations. Heisenberg was another apolitical scientist, although, in his case, he deliberately took “left turns” in his nuclear weapon research to ensure Germany would not have an atomic weapon in time for the inevitable end of the war. In one conversation between us, my friend said (and detailed research bears his statement out) “My father certainly knew how to build a nuclear weapon” but deliberately did not do so. Von Braun certainly proved his bona fides in his work on the US Space Program. My comment is not to completely absolve him of his role in Nazi Germany, especially in the development of the V2. Rather it’s to acknowledge the reality that the complete absorption required in scientific endeavors, even evil ones, often makes for a certain apolitical myopia in the scientist. Finally, note that most “scientists” who were fervent Nazis were blinded by their ideology - or quite incompetent.

[@michaelporzio7384]

Yes, Von Braun was an actual Nazi, he was a member of the Nazi party and held rank in the SS. That said, his ambition was to build rockets and travel in space. His Nazi past did not matter to the US government because he was such a brilliant engineer and manager. His work with Walt Disney in the 1950s sold the American public on the idea of space flight, and the Cold War gave him the money and manpower to get to the moon. Von Braun was singular focused on his ambition, he served the Nazis and the Americans with equal skill and fervor because they furthered his ambition. Only after the Apollo Project was successfully completed did his Nazi past become an issue.

[@Wustenfuchs109]

As someone from the field of nuclear science (I am theoretical and experimental physicist), I can tell you, and all the physics scientific community can confirm, is that Heisenberg did NOT know how to build a bomb. Nor did he deliberately take "left turns". For the bomb, he knew the general principle of it, but his calculations were waaay off. Also, his team did not even work on the bomb, they worked on a reactor... that didn't work. Basically, he made several wrong assumptions with the whole criticality and moderation questions and that derailed his entire work, even the one that he DID want to finish. Allies did spy on him, he was extremely surprised when Americans managed to make the bomb. In his estimations, it would have been too large to be taken by an airplane and would require a ship. He was wrong on the order of magnitude. In short, no, he didn't know how to build a bomb. Which is understandable - no one knew on their own. Americans built it only because they gathered a huge number of nuclear physicists, all of them Heisenberg's equal, and every one of them contributed a bit so in the end the bomb was made. If Americans had, for example, Fermi or Einstein or whom ever with their small team of assistants, they would have never made the bomb either. Every one of them knew a bit and only combined were they able to pull it off. Heisenberg was just a piece of puzzle, he needed a lot of other pieces to form a full picture, which he didn't have. Only some time after the war did the Heisenberg start the story of "Nah, I knew how to build it, but I wanted to help you guys, so I worked against Hitler!", just like how every other scientist and officer acted in order to secure their future in post-war world. Allies found all of his work and observed him - it was clear, beyond a doubt, that he didn't know how to build a bomb. Or reactor for that matter. He did know the general concept of it, he had some ideas, but he didn't know how to actually do any of those. It was pure experimentation for him. Which, again, is understandable. Heisenberg was smart, but he was primarily focused on theoretical quantum mechanics. He was a poor experimental scientist and focused on a different field of study.

[@cre8erz]

I don’t get the extreme moralizing of the dog Lika, even today so many animals are experimented on with out the expectation that they will survive, so please quit the dubious morality of the Soviet space program based on this one example, modern science is based on these things and I am not saying that that is ethical but it is quite exhausting to hear this argument only leverage towards the Soviet Union. Always remember the only country to ever employ nuclear weapons did so twice on two highly populated cities.

[@mohammedsaysrashid3587]

It was an informative and wonderful historical coverage video about space and the First Cold War period..

[@gregcampwriter]

It continues to disgust me that we gave up on human flight beyond low Earth orbit. The American people suffer from a pathetic lack of imagination and long-term ambition.

[@BartJBols]

Calling Laika a """"biological sample"""" is incredibly crude and heartless.

[@waltermc3906]

Who won the space race? The USA... Because the USSR died before the race ended.

[@user-xt3sd5kf5c]

Same with the whole cold war

[@zeltron-qk2iu]

Space race died in 1972 & handshake apollo soyuz USSR won that race, they sent more space stations & landed on more celestial bodies

[@jackhardy3905]

Ussr because it is called space race and not moon race or cold war

[@bobdavidson8019]

The USA made it to the Moon because they created a huge bureaucracy to oversee and coordinate the project. The Soviets failed because they instead let a bunch of independent groups compete with each other for a solution.

[@saulocpp]

The right question is: who dissolved due to lack of money?

[@dr.victorvs]

Oh, great, a question that can be answered 100% objectively at all, and even more so given things like patriotic bias! I'm sure we'll have a straight answer before the end of the episode.

[@InquisitorXarius]

Did the Russians Land on the Moon? No, I didn’t think so, have a good day Vatnik

[@DOSFS]

​@@ForDeath16 Even with that definition, US 'overall' was still better than the USSR at the end of the Cold War though. Especially if you count something like commercial utilization. But in the end, it is just about what you want to defined as space race anyway.

[@markpurington8659]

Great topic. Was especially pleased to see a return to your original format, with you facing the camera and speaking directly to the audience, without the constant cutting to a different camera angle every ten seconds. This technique, which is widely popular in videos today, is not only disruptive (the speaker is not making eye contact and is ignoring the audience) but highly unattractive, because nobody wants to see a closeup of the inside of anyone’s left ear every ten seconds. Welcome back!

[@westrim]

@@DOSFS The space race was declared by Kennedy in 1962 when he declared an objective to put a man on the moon by the end of the decade. The US did so, the USSR tried and failed. Race over, US victory. This isn't murky.

[@benjaminclark4030]

The way he's pronouncing the word "Gemini" is driving me nuts. It's Gemin-I, not Gemin-E!!! Ugh.

[@swmark78]

That's how they pronounced it back in the day. Drives me nuts every time I watch some old timey NASA video.

[@Wustenfuchs109]

No one did. Because the race is not over (space is kinda big, and we haven't even left our backyard)... and for that matter, was never even declared as a race with a goal. It seems extremely egocentric to declare the first milestone that one reached to be the victory point and the end of the whole thing, which is exactly what USA did. Up to that point, Soviets won the milestones, USA declared that they will put a man on the Moon and return them, which they did, and all of a sudden, victory and end of the race. Why? Makes no sense. The "race" continued after that well, space stations started to appear and Soviets once again reached the new milestone first, and so on and so on. And to this day, new milestones are being made. So, who won? No one did. Because no one agreed that it is a race that has an end point. And different nations set different goals based on their needs. If you want someone to declare a winner - mankind won and continues to win. Declaring USA or USSR a winner, for any reason, is plain stupid. USA's landing on the Moon has a great cultural impact, yet very little scientific impact or influence our further space exploration and development. USSR's program of space stations, developing further into modular space stations that culminated into ISS, had less cultural and media impact but had a MUCH higher scientific impact and basis for further development of space exploration. And now, we have several new players in the "race" that keep pushing the boundaries. There is no race, and even if there is, it is the one without the end. So there will never be a winner.

[@tylerclayton6081]

The ISS is mostly made up of American modules and technology. And the USSR doesn’t even exist anymore. They bankrupted themselves and destroyed their economy trying to compete with the USA. Which ultimately destroyed the USSR. America’s economic strength was always far greater than

[@11conormcloughlin]

TLDR: Germany won 🇩🇪

[@Philfluffer]

Maybe it’d (Apollo 13) still be watching if Tom Hanks wasn’t in it….

[@1joshjosh1]

Valentina Tereshkova kicks ass !! I don't think she gets enough credit in the west just because she's Russian. If our modern "leaders" want half the workforce to be women( thereby stagnating wages) and to celebrate women and push mostly crappy women sports down our throats they should talk about her to the stars and back.. but of course they won't.

[@colinjohnston5734]

The Russians where the first to send a person to space and the first to land a rover on another planet. But the Americans getting to the moon seems to be the bar for victory.

[@bluesteel8376]

They both achieved many firsts. Neither really won.

[@BosnianBEAST-ky9xv]

Landing a human on the moon and bringing them back is a major feat

[@tylerclayton6081]

The Soviets focused on firsts. The US focused on scientific data and achievements. That’s why they got to the moon first and did everything the Soviets did but better

[@Wustenfuchs109]

@@tylerclayton6081 Quite the opposite. All of the "firsts" in the 1950's and 1960's were the firsts that had to be undertaken no matter what your goal is. First orbit, fist live being in space, first man in space, first EVA and so on. Then, the paths diverge. USA focuses on manned Moon landing, which has no scientific benefit (data could be and was acquired by robotic missions before and after) while USSR focused on space stations - which do have a scientific benefit and to this day modular space station construction that Soviets pioneered is used in modern space stations. USA never had its MIR station equivalent. So no, they didn't do everything Soviets did but better. They did some things better, some things worse, some not at all. Just as it is the case with the Soviets.

[@carlosvasquez9890]

This is going to be controversial...but, having read quite a lot on the topic, my view is that there was "race" alright...but there was NO possible competition at all: besides a couple of initial successes (mostly because an military driven early start..and the fact there was no single, agreed upon, goal lines to begin with), the USSR has exactly ZERO chance on beating NASA on any single meaningful way. Their space "program" was nothing but ill conceived and improvised series of propaganda driven circus feats carried on with no respect for human life and scientific endeavour whatsoever. There. It had to be said.

[@gumpmosh]

Take a pill, schizo😂

[@nonegone7170]

It's not controversial at all. Just extremely ignorant as we have come to expect from the average American.

[@blackhatfreak]

The US did full stop. Everything the US caught the USSR up to exceeded in every way possible and went from there. Even today, the Russian space program is still in the 60s while the American program is in the 21st century. Don't worry I'm still watching lol

[@nonegone7170]

Can't exactly compare the joke that is Roscosmos to the soviet space program, that ended in the 90's. They were comparable for a time, they even made the same mistake the Americans did, pour a whole bunch of money into a stupid space shuttle.