Meaning & use

space race

noun·Academic

The 20th-century competition between the United States and the Soviet Union to achieve superior spaceflight capability.

See it in a sentence

The space race led to the first human landing on the Moon in 1969.

Sputnik's launch in 1957 is often seen as the start of the space race.

A note on using this word

'Space race' is usually capitalized informally when referring specifically to that Cold War era rivalry.

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