Bennett 1 Grayson Bennett Professor Lynn Raymond University Writing 1103-E02 16 November 2015 Close to Defeat Coming into this project, I did not know much about the Space Race. I knew that it was between the United States and Russia and that it is was over which country could make it to the moon first. | like learning about history so I was excited to have the opportunity to expand my knowledge about an important event in US history. One of the most surprising fact that I have found through mf research was how close Russia was to putting a man on the moon. The {ronaut in orbit around the moon in a few months. The United States even rushed the launch of Apollo 11 because they knew that the Russians were so close to putting a man in space, -wing how important it was to the United States to beat the Russians to the moon. This was a little known fact, Most people thought that the United States jus outright beat Russia. Although this is true, it’s not well known how close Russia was to beating the United States. The discovery of how close the Russians were to beating the US lead to information about how well Russian spies had infiltrated the United States government as well. The Russians lacked the computing, power that was needed to create a lunar lander. It was said that it was only a matter of time before Russians spies would find and steal the advancements made by the American scientists./ Bennett 2 This notion really brought to the light the seriousness of the Cold War and the strength of the Russian spy network.