did the space race in any way lead to the fall of USSR? if so, how? 10pts space race?

Question

60s space race. i think it might be because the race was so economically draining to ussr, that ussr just kind of fell apart. i have a feeling im wrong though. please help!

Answer 1

Space programs are expensive. There's no getting around that. Both the US and Soviet moon programs represented significant portions of each nation's annual budget. Ours worked, there's didn't. Oh well... On the other hand, they turned to launching space stations, learning a *great deal* about living in orbit for months on end. We built a shuttle to jump up and down with no where to go, really. So who was ahead, in the final analysis?



Okay, your question is about the demise of the USSR. The heavy outlays of capital that resulted in the different expensive space projects were history at the time of USSR's fall. It was the attempt to respond to Reagan's "Star Wars" program that did it. The US proposed an orbital ICBM defense system to shoot down incoming missiles. The USSR was cornered into trying the same thing - something they plainly could not afford at all. Actually, that was just the last straw. The Soviet economy had been teetering for some time. The space defense project simply catapulted them over the edge. Their economy imploded.



So in a way, "a" space race led to the fall of the USSR, just not the classic "Race to the Moon".

Answer 2

The space race contributed to the fall of the USSR, but only in a small way. Economics felled the USSR. Their brand of communism did little to reward hard work; in fact, laziness had little punishment at all and investing gained little. Add to that the "keep up with the Joneses" arms race and infrastructure race through "Five Year Plans", where investing and hard work was critically important, and their economy simply collapsed under its own weight. The space race was a part of the arms race, but only a part.

Answer 3

The fall of the USSR was caused by several factors but -- as you mentioned -- one of those was definitely the financial over-burden that the Soviets tried to bear, and the space race was a big part of that.

Answer 4

Space race might have been part of it but inso far as rockets are concerned and it was many years prior to the collapse. The US and latterly through Reagan bankrupted the USSR as they tried to keep up defence wise.

Answer 5

No way!



The fall of USSR was due to American intervention and propaganda.



It had NOTHING to do with any internal to USSR problem!!!!!

Answer 6

Certainly, because the rockets we made to get us into space are similar to the rockets we used for ICBMs.