The first Space Race began in October 1957 with the Soviet Union’s successful launch of Sputnik, the first man-made satellite to orbit the Earth. From its inception, funding that Space Race was never a problem. Despite numerous early failures, the urgency of the challenge fueled continued funding because the consequences of losing were so grave.
Now the United States is engaged in a new Space Race, part of a broader great power competition that pits the United States against China not only in space, but in every military, economic, and technological domain. Yet unlike the first Space Race against the Soviet Union, which came hard on the heels of a world war and then another bloody fight in Korea, most of the American public is barely aware of the current stakes in this Space Race.
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