space race

[speys reys]

noun

1. a Cold War rivalry in which the United States and the Soviet Union competed for primacy in space exploration, beginning with the Soviet launch of the artificial satellite Sputnik I on October 4, 1957, and effectively ending with the moon landing of the U.S. manned module Eagle on July 20, 1969.

Word History and Origins

Origin of space race¹

First recorded in 1955–60

Example Sentences

That’s when the Space Race began to escalate.

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What does this launch mean for the commercial space race?

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See more: Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin has entered the orbital space race.

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Industry insiders, evoking the Cold War’s space race, often cast the release of ChatGPT as a “Sputnik moment” for China in its intensifying competition with the U.S.

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WSJ: In the AI action plan the administration released this summer, you wrote that America is going to win the AI race just like we won the space race.

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