It was also a matter of national pride. The Soviets sent up Sputnik and the race was on. Nobody would have needed to put people in the rockets to justify making an ICBM, but they certainly did put up astronauts and cosmonauts past the point when it was clear that both sides had the technology necessary to create an apocalypse in about an hour.
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It was also a matter of national pride. The Soviets sent up Sputnik and the race was on. Nobody would have needed to put people in the rockets to justify making an ICBM, but they certainly did put up astronauts and cosmonauts past the point when it was clear that both sides had the technology necessary to create an apocalypse in about an hour.