The correct answer should be "D". Not only did the explosion kill key scientists and the Cosmodrome, it destroyed the Russian version of the Saturn V or their "Moon Rocket".
Without that rocket, the Russians could never send a man to the moon and back.
So, perhaps it wasn't the explosion of the Cosmodrome but the rocket that exploded on the launch pad at the Cosmodrome that ultimately prevented the Russians from putting a man on the moon first and bringing him back safely.
On May 25, 1961, three weeks after the U.S. sent its first astronaut, Alan Shepard, on a successful suborbital flight, President Kennedy urged the nation and Congress to get behind his challenge of putting a man on the moon and successfully returning him to Earth by the end of the decade. At the time, the U.S. was lagging behind the Russian space program and deeply embroiled in the Cold War. The rest is history.
In light of Kennedy’s proposal, we invite you to take this challenge in his words (1962), “not because it’s easy but because it is hard.” We’ve also added a couple of questions about today’s space race.
Instructions: Click on your answer and then see how many others agree with you. Then click to see the answer and the next question.
