![]() Air Force and trained as astronauts completely independently of their peers at NASA. A secret group of 32 men was selected from the U.S. The endeavor was called the Manned Spaceflight Engineer Program, and although it hasn’t gotten much attention in the years since, the Pentagon invested billions of dollars into it throughout the 1970s and ’80s. In fact, even America once had a secretive Department of Defense (DoD) space program complete with its own military astronauts, a $3.3 billion California-based spaceport meant for secretive space shuttle launches into polar orbit, and more. Despite harsh statements made by both Russian and Chinese government officials regarding America’s burgeoning Space Force, each of those nations has already maintained space-based branches of their own for years. With Russian “inspector” satellites largely believed to be orbital weapons platforms, and China now beginning to field its own maneuverable, unmanned orbital platforms that can also be used to disrupt other nation’s satellite capabilities, it’s clear today the United States has fallen behind when it comes to finding ways to fight future wars in space (at least as far as non-classified programs go). The real space race, as it pertains to military endeavors, has always been primarily about orbital assets, and that race continues to this day. The truth of the matter is, however, the Moon landing’s strategic value was largely about perceptions regarding America, the Soviet Union, and their respective economic and political ideologies. That’s the day Apollo 11 landed on the Moon, accomplishing a feat the Soviets could not match and securing the “ultimate high ground” for American interests. ![]() HERE’S WHYĮven for Americans who are ready and willing to embrace the idea that national security concerns helped fuel America’s fervor for space programs in the 1950s and ’60s, most tend to think of the space race as a competition with an end date: July 20, 1969. ![]() (NASA) Related: THE NEW SPACE FORCE FLAG LOOKS LIKE IT’S RIGHT OUT OF STAR TREK. The mighty Saturn V won the race to the Moon, but conflict continued in our orbital backyard. It was about the efficacy of economic ideologies in an era when global norms were at stake. Winning the space race, then, became about more than national pride. The Soviet Union’s early lead in the space race was not only a black eye for America, it was seen by many as proof positive that the Soviet communist model was not only working, it was out-innovating American capitalism. President Kennedy’s famed announcement that Americans would reach the Moon by the close of the 1960s wasn’t lofty American optimism: it was a directive rooted deeply in geopolitics and concerns about the spread of communism. military, was (at least in part) a strategic military decision dressed up in good PR. The very establishment of NASA, less than a year after the launch of Sputnik and staffed in large part by scientists and researchers who had previously developed missile technologies for the U.S. ![]() While that concept is only recently seeping its way into common conversation here in the United States, it’s always been present behind closed doors at the Pentagon.
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