The Soviets were definitely in the race to land on the moon first, despite their later coolness over the matter.
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| The Race To The Moon Was Real |
Their first circumlunar flights were planned to occur in 1967, and the first landings to start in 1968. Secret failures of the N1-L3 rocket slowed the program, and the USA pipped them.
However they had an excuse for losing, which wasn't given officially. But at a trade delegation meeting in Moscow in June 1969, Tim Spencer one
of the UK trade delegates asked an older Russian communist party
functionary how the Americans had managed to beat the USSR to landing the first
man on the moon. "Very simple," he replied: "American Germans are better
than our Germans."
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| The USA Apparently Caught The Cleverer Germans .... |
Actually although probably true to a certain extent, it was thought by many that the Soviets would pip the USA to the prize (although not necessarily before 1970), especially in the early 1960's, when the USSR was creating a string of space firsts ahead of the USA. So when in 1964, David Threlfall (then aged 20), asked the bookmakers William Hill if he could place a £10 bet that a man would walk on the moon before January the first 1970, they accepted, offering 1,000 to 1 odds against.
Incidentally this was the first non sports related bet ever taken (officially) by a British bookmakers. Of course they got it wrong, and the USA space program made a successful landing in 1969. William Hill had to pay Mr Threlfall £10,000, which is £168,842 in 2021 values. They also had to pay another £50,000 to a number of other punters who had made similar bets.
Sadly Mr Threlfall's canny wager, actually proved to be unlucky, because he used part of the winnings to buy a sports car, and was killed when he crashed in it.
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