First Satellite of the world

Howard McCurdy (Ph.D., Space Historian, American University):
"People assume that the nation that own the Space Race Would win the Cold War we define that to be the first to the moon. It was a time of more or less national history"
 

In October 1957, the Soviets terrified America, when they send Sputnik, the world's first Satellite in the orbit.

Howard:
" The New York Times at the publican's article, explaining to Americans it did not carried nuclear bombs that could drop on the city from that altitude."

The American publics fair of Nuclear aniolation intensified, as Russia took
the lead in the space race.

Julian Scheer (Former NASA Spokesman):
"How we speak unanswered in congress that we may be headed for extension"

Many fear that the Soviet's Union Ultimate goal was to put a Mission Base on the Moon meanwhile, Americas space program was having difficulty even getting off the ground.

Bill Kaysing (Moon Hoax Investigator):
" The chances of getting to the moon and returning safely to the earth were something like 0.0017% (point zero zero one seven percent) in other words virtually an impossibility.
What Actually happened in my mind, is during 60s They said "If you can't make it, Fake it."

 

Involvement of USSR

A primary reason for the race to the Moon was the Cold War. The Soviets, with their own competing Moon program and a formidable scientific community able to analyze NASA data, could be expected to have cried foul if the USA tried to fake a Moon landing, especially as they themselves had been unsuccessful in their own man-on-the-Moon program. They would have scored enormous status in the eyes of the rest of the world by doing so. Conspiracy theorist Ralph Rene said that the USSR was bought off with secret shipments of grain.

Given the lack of supporting evidence from any Communist bloc countries since the openness and revelations following the collapse of the Soviet Union, this is seen by many as a strong argument against such a hoax. For more on conspiracy theories within the Soviet space program.

Bart Sibrel said, in response, that "the Soviets did not have the capability to track deep spacecraft until late in 1972, immediately after which, the last three Apollo missions were abruptly canceled."

• However, the Soviet Union had been sending unmanned spacecraft to the Moon since 1959 and "during 1962, deep space tracking facilities were introduced at IP-15 in Ussuriisk and IP-16 in Evpatoria (Crimean Peninsula). While Saturn communication stations were added to IP-3, 4 and 14", the latter having a 100 million km range.

• Apollo 18 and Apollo 19 were canceled on September 2, 1970, due to budget cuts by the US Congress. Apollo 20 had been canceled earlier on January 4, 1970.

Technological comparison

1. First manmade satellite in orbit (October 1957, Sputnik 1).
2. First living creature to enter orbit (November 1957, Sputnik 2).
3. First to safely return living creature from orbit, two dogs Belka and Strelka, 40 mice, 2 rats (Aug1960, Sputnik 5)
4. First man in space (April 1961, Vostok 1).
5. First man to orbit the Earth (April 1961, Vostok 1).
6. First to have two spacecraft in orbit at the same time
   (though it was not a space rendezvous, as frequently described) (August 1962, Vostok 3 and Vostok 4).
7. First woman in space (June 1963, Vostok 6, as part of a second dual-spacecraft flight including Vostok 5).
8. First crew of three cosmonauts on board one spacecraft (October 1964, Voskhod 1).
9. First spacewalk (EVA) (March 1965, Voskhod 2).

On January 27, 1967, the three astronauts aboard Apollo 1 died in a fire on the launch pad during training. The fire was triggered by a spark in the oxygen-rich atmosphere used in the spacecraft test, and fueled by a significant quantity of combustible material within the spacecraft. Two years later all of the problems were declared fixed. Bart Sibrel believes that the accident led NASA to conclude that the only way to 'win' the space race was to fake the landings.In any case, the first manned Apollo flight, Apollo 7, occurred in October, 1968, 21 months after the fire.

• NASA and others say that these achievements by the Soviets are not as impressive as the simple list implies; that a number of these 'firsts' were mere stunts that did not advance the technology significantly, or at all (e.g. the first woman in space); and that they were built on a dangerous program of ballistic rocket research, not a gradual program aimed to get to the Moon.
• A close examination of the many flight missions reveal many problems, risks, and near-catastrophes for both the Soviet and American programs. A negative 'first' for the Soviets was the first in-flight fatality, in April 1967, three months after the Apollo I fire, as Soyuz 1 crash-landed. Despite that disaster, the Soyuz program continued, after a lengthy interval to solve design problems, as with the Apollo program.
• Before the first Earth-orbiting Apollo flight, the USSR had accumulated 534 hours of manned spaceflight whereas the US had accumulated over 1,992 hours of manned spaceflight. By the time of Apollo 11, the US's lead was much wider than that (see List of human spaceflights, 1960s.)
• Most of the 'firsts' above were done by the US within a year afterwards (sometimes within weeks). In 1965 the US started to achieve many 'firsts' which were important steps in a mission to the Moon. See List of Space Exploration Milestones, 1957-1969 for a more complete list of achievements by both the US and USSR. The USSR never developed a successful rocket capable of a Moon landing mission — their N1 rocket failed on all four launch attempts. They never tested a lunar lander on a manned mission.

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