Space Race Competition
During the time of the Surveyor missions, the United States was actively involved in a Space Race with the Soviet Union. Thus, the Surveyor 1 landing in June 1966, only four months after the Soviet Luna 9 probe landed in February, was an indication the programs were at similar stages.
Read more about this topic: Surveyor Program
Famous quotes containing the words space, race and/or competition:
“Thus all our dignity lies in thought. Through it we must raise ourselves, and not through space or time, which we cannot fill. Let us endeavor, then, to think well: this is the mainspring of morality.”
—Blaise Pascal (1623–1662)
“This seems to be advanced as the surest basis for our belief in the existence of gods, that there is no race so uncivilized, no one in the world so barbarous that his mind has no inkling of a belief in gods.”
—Marcus Tullius Cicero (106–43 B.C.)
“The praise of ancient authors proceeds not from the reverence of the dead, but from the competition and mutual envy of the living.”
—Thomas Hobbes (1588–1679)