Read paragraph 1 from the selection. Choose the phrase that best demonstrates why the U.S. and
Russia were in a “race to space.”
Space travel in the 1960s wasn’t just about NASA making progress in their efforts to understand our
world and the galaxy it sits in. Space travel at that time was also about international relations. The
United States and its main rival, Russia, were engaged in a “race to space.” Both countries wanted to
be the first ones in space, and the first to orbit Earth. In April of 1961, Russian cosmonaut Yuri
Gagarin became the first person in space, and his spacecraft orbited Earth one time.
