When the Americans had to find a way to write in space in a gravity free environment they spent 1 million dollars to develop the fisher space pen the more practical Russians used pencils ok but is dose not stop there
Russians send a Satelite in space Sputnik 1 October 4, 1957
Americans send a satelite in space Explorer 1 January 31, 1958
Russian First living being in Space Laika November 3, 1957Russians First human space flight Yuri Gagarin Vostok 1 April 12, 1961
American First monkey Abel and Miss Baker to return from space safely JUPITER AM-18 May 28, 1959Americans First human space flightJohn Glenn's Mercury-Atlas 6 February 20, 1962
What strikes me is that the Russians were very efficient in their space program and skipped sending monkeys in Space actually Yuri Gagarin replaced the role of the American space monkeys and he was much more lucky than his American monkey counter parts.
To this day the Russian space program is much more stable and logical the proof is that the space shuttle program is coming to an end where as the Russian space program is like old faithful popping rockets up into space year after year.
