On February 20, 1962, American astronaut John Glenn flew is small Mercury spacecapsule "Friendship 7" around the Earth 3 times becoming the first American to orbit the Earth. 

According the the international rules at the time, this was actually the first "REAL" spaceflight.  The two previous American missions had not reached the required altitude according to international standards.  The two previous Soviet missions (both orbitals) did reach the altitude barrier but the cosmonaut did not land inside his capsule (which was one of the rules-this was of course covered up).   So, according to the rules at the time, Glenn's mission was the first to meet all the requirements of a space flight.  Of course, the previous 4 missions are today (and even were then) considered space flights in the eyes of most.

Probably the same people that wrote the rules for the next "X Prize", the $50million award to the first person to complete 2 orbits in a civilian manned spacecraft. As we all know, one of the leaders in this field is a chap and his company from the north of the UK, and before SpaceShip One he was tipped as a possible winner of the original X-Prize. I find it strange however, that the small print for this one states (in words to the effect of...) "the entrant must be American and the Spacecraft must be developed in the USA", which rather limits the incentive for any non-American to try...

Charlie

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Indeed, well done to the USSR. Its a shame people don't remember things like that .

According to my video collection it was Peter Sellers in the film "Heaven's Above"

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I imagine they stemmed from Paris, as many international federations (sport/technological) have historically been based there...

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Thanks Felix - just what I was trying to remember the name of...

...as opposed to the FIA, which is rather more ground based...

The americans achieved nothing in the space race, they were always behind the russians, and they DIDN'T get to the moon.

The Matrix...exists! 

I don't wish to prolong this argument but I've never doubted that the so-called Space Race was mainly politically motivated & regarded as a matter of national security by both govenments. It was not presented as such to Joe Public to avoid questioning the vast amount of public money involved. Much like flying, romantic notions of space travel have appealed to people for centuries. Comics were full of science fiction heroes like Dan Dare when I was young & we could see the exploits of space adventurers like Flash Gordon every week at the Saturday morning flicks. This was the environment in the early 60s when the possibility of it becoming reality & a man actually walking on the Moon in the very near future caused a great deal of enthusiasm & excitement among ordinary people. Not only did they say they could do it but this would be during our lifetime & we would be able to see them doing it.* What a thing to be able to tell our grandchildren. "I can remember when the first man walked on the Moon & we watched it all on TV." It's no coincidence that the first NASA Space Shuttle was officially named Enterprise.

It seems a pity to me that all that expense & effort could not have been a joint project. However, if both sides had not considered it vitally important to keep abreast of the other I doubt the funding would have been available to achieve it.

I know you're very interested in space travel Richie & have no wish to contradict you. You know far more about the technical aspects than I ever will.  Having been around when all this was happening I'm just stating things as I & many others see them. This is not sour grapes or jealousy caused by my country not being directly involved, as some people might suspect or accuse me of. Seeing things from my part of the world often helps me to remain impartial, which I always try to be.

*PS. This was almost beyond our imagination at the time as the first live transatlantic TV pictures were transmitted in 1962 (when I was 19 years old) as a direct result of the space programme. Before this we would only see recorded film clips of international events on the news. I don't think anyone not there at the time can appreciate the incredible leaps in technology over a very short period of time. Things we now take for granted were pure science fiction 40 years ago. I don't think we're likely to see this again during my lifetime.