With the help of their trusty little four-legged cosmonauts, the USSR was beating the pants off us in the Space Race, literally all the way up until Americans walked on the moon. That was the one and only time we surpassed them. Though American media tried to belittle the progress made by the Soviets, their steady success often added to the humiliation of eating our own words. The American press had a field day with Laika’s successful launch, dubbing both the dog and capsule “Muttnik”. But it appears the Russians had the last laugh in that bout of propagandized mudslinging. Shortly after, the embarrassing first attempt by the USA to launch a satellite – the televised launch pad explosion of Vanguard TV3 in December of 1957 – was ridiculed as Flopnik, Oopsnik and Kaputnik to name a few. #SpaceDogWeek
Posted on: Fri, 07 Nov 2014 01:05:56 +0000
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