Palin: USSR Collapesed because they won the space race.

headscratcher4

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headscratcher4
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http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/...e-ussr-won-the-space-race-video.php?ref=fpblg

From that font of historical knowledge...Sarah Palin (commenting on why we should be worried that Obama's SOTU speech called this a Sputnik moment):

"He needs to remember that, uh, what happened back then with the communist U.S.S.R. and their victory in that race to space," the Fox News contributor said Wednesday night, reacting to Obama's reference to Sputnik in his State of the Union speech. Palin called the Sputnik name drop one of the "W.T.F." moments in the speech, a play of the President's call for "winning the future."

"Yeah, they won but they also incurred so much debt at the time that it resulted in the inevitable collapse of the Soviet Union," Palin said.

Yep...that about sums it up.
 
Yeah remember how Apollo caused the downfall of the USA as well?
 
That is truly abysmally stupid.

I wonder if the always-uneasy alliance between Republican Party and space advocacy groups will come to an end?

What is P.O.?
 
I find it strange that people think the relevant issue is that we won the space race (which race? There was more than one), rather than the fact that economics, not losing the space race, is what killed the USSR. Landing a man on the moon first wouldn't have kept them afloat. And high-speed rail and hybrid cars won't keep us afloat either.
 
The USSR led the "space race" for a while: first to launch a satellite, first to put a living creature into space, first to put a man into space, first to put a woman into space, etc. But their downfall was much more complicated than their 1950's and 1960's space program.
 
headscratcher4 said:
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/...e-ussr-won-the-space-race-video.php?ref=fpblg

From that font of historical knowledge...Sarah Palin (commenting on why we should be worried that Obama's SOTU speech called this a Sputnik moment):

"He needs to remember that, uh, what happened back then with the communist U.S.S.R. and their victory in that race to space," the Fox News contributor said Wednesday night, reacting to Obama's reference to Sputnik in his State of the Union speech. Palin called the Sputnik name drop one of the "W.T.F." moments in the speech, a play of the President's call for "winning the future."

"Yeah, they won but they also incurred so much debt at the time that it resulted in the inevitable collapse of the Soviet Union," Palin said.

Yep...that about sums it up.
Click to expand...

Wow.
 

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maybe she expressed herself unclear. but my double u tf moment was when the Reporter actually asked a good question about skill needed in the market and skills hold by jobless people, and Palin just repeated the gospel of private market is the only one able to create jobs......
 
Monza said:
The USSR led the "space race" for a while: first to launch a satellite, first to put a living creature into space, first to put a man into space, first to put a woman into space, etc.
Click to expand...


In regards to the bolded, the U.S. could have been the first. Alan Shepard was originally slated to go on his sub-orbital flight in March of 1961, but concerns over the booster postponed the launch. Then, in April, Gagarin went up and became first.

One can only speculate as to how the nature of the space race may have been different had the U.S. achieved putting a man into space first (though the Soviets still would have been the first to put a man into orbit).
 
Corsair 115 said:
In regards to the bolded, the U.S. could have been the first. Alan Shepard was originally slated to go on his sub-orbital flight in March of 1961, but concerns over the booster postponed the launch. Then, in April, Gagarin went up and became first.

One can only speculate as to how the nature of the space race may have been different had the U.S. achieved putting a man into space first (though the Soviets still would have been the first to put a man into orbit).
Click to expand...

One can only speculate as to how the nature of the space race may have been different had Ralph Kramden carried through on his many offers to send Alice to the moon. :)
 
I think this incident speaks more to Palin's knee-jerk partisan rejectionism of anything Obama utters, however innocuous, than to any lack of historical knowledge. She just needed something to say that she thought might make Obama look stupid, and that was the best she could come up with off the top of her head. If Obama came out in favor of motherhood, Palin would probably retort "The president needs to remember, that, uh, mothers are responsible for bringing into the world, like, every serial killer who, ya know, ever lived."
 
Corsair 115 said:
In regards to the bolded, the U.S. could have been the first. Alan Shepard was originally slated to go on his sub-orbital flight in March of 1961, but concerns over the booster postponed the launch. Then, in April, Gagarin went up and became first.

One can only speculate as to how the nature of the space race may have been different had the U.S. achieved putting a man into space first (though the Soviets still would have been the first to put a man into orbit).
Click to expand...

The real reason it was a problem for us is that we had Dr. Edward Teller.

Dr. Teller's team produced H-bomb design was MUCH smaller and lighter than the design produced by the team headed by Andrei Sakharov.

So, we were able to deliver those warheads at the intercontinental distances with a small booster like the Atlas, and they needed a much larger booster, and so the R-7 booster was developed. The R-7 was not a practical weapon, but it became the basis for the A-1 booster than launched Gagarin.
 
Stellafane said:
I think this incident speaks more to Palin's knee-jerk partisan rejectionism of anything Obama utters, however innocuous, than to any lack of historical knowledge. She just needed something to say that she thought might make Obama look stupid, and that was the best she could come up with off the top of her head. If Obama came out in favor of motherhood, Palin would probably retort "The president needs to remember, that, uh, mothers are responsible for bringing into the world, like, every serial killer who, ya know, ever lived."
Click to expand...

That's funny. :)
(Also true)
 
BenBurch said:
The real reason it was a problem for us is that we had Dr. Edward Teller.

Dr. Teller's team produced H-bomb design was MUCH smaller and lighter than the design produced by the team headed by Andrei Sakharov.

So, we were able to deliver those warheads at the intercontinental distances with a small booster like the Atlas, and they needed a much larger booster, and so the R-7 booster was developed. The R-7 was not a practical weapon, but it became the basis for the A-1 booster than launched Gagarin.
Click to expand...

Not quite. Soviet bombs weren't less efficient than US ones. The R-16 missile had a similar throw weight and warhead yield to its US contemporary the TitanII.

The R-7 was so big because the Soviets aimed for a ICBM earlier than the US using cruder less developed technology.
 
Mark6 said:
That is truly abysmally stupid.

I wonder if the always-uneasy alliance between Republican Party and space advocacy groups will come to an end?

What is P.O.?
Click to expand...
I'm guessing it's "Palin Obsession".
 
Corsair 115 said:
In regards to the bolded, the U.S. could have been the first. Alan Shepard was originally slated to go on his sub-orbital flight in March of 1961, but concerns over the booster postponed the launch. Then, in April, Gagarin went up and became first.

One can only speculate as to how the nature of the space race may have been different had the U.S. achieved putting a man into space first (though the Soviets still would have been the first to put a man into orbit).
Click to expand...

The US had the technology to launch an orbital satellite in 1956 too, but Von Braun's team were prevented from doing so.

I'd also note that while the USSR put the first animal in space, the USA was the first to put one in space and successfully recover it, and that puting a woman is space is not a technological achievement, just a publicity stunt, like most of the Soviet firsts. Even Gagarin's flight wasn't strictly by the rules as the astronaut was supposed to land with their ship, but he bailed out before the landing because the soft landing system wasn't perfected at the time of flight.
 
Reminded me of a UK newspaper's (the Mirror I think?) headline re the failed US attempt to launch a satellite soon after the Soviets:

'Phutnik'
 
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