Why Did the Soviet Union’s Little-Known Lunar Program Fail?

What Led to the Abandonment of the Soviet Moon Landing Effort?

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In the last century, the Soviet Union was the first to send astronauts into space, yet it lost to the United States in the moon landing race.

After World War II, the previous world order was redrawn, and the United States and the Soviet Union, former allies against fascism, gradually became adversaries.

Unlike the past approach of resolving disputes through war, the two countries began to compete in technology, each wanting to outdo the other.

In this context, both nations turned their attention to space, a realm no human had ever reached before, thus commencing the space race between the two.

The Soviet Union was the first to launch a satellite and send a pilot into space. So, why was it the United States that first set foot on the moon? What went wrong with the Soviet lunar program?

When discussing the space race, one cannot overlook Nazi Germany during World War II. In the latter part of the war, Germany realized its perilous situation.

Had it been able to develop a long-range superweapon, it could have changed its increasingly dire fortunes. Hence, in 1943, Germany developed the V2 rocket, stunning both the US and the Soviet Union.