Asif Siddiqi Head Shot

Asif Siddiqi

Professor of History, Fordham University

Asif Siddiqi, Professor of History, Fordham University

Latest Planetary Radio Appearances

A Political History of Apollo Episode 2 - The Soviet Moonshot

The Soviet space program launched the first artificial satellite, the first man, and the first woman into space. Soviet cosmonauts performed the first spacewalk and piloted the first two-person spacecraft. But it was the United States that placed the first humans on the surface of the Moon. What happened? Dr. Asif Siddiqi, author of Challenge to Apollo: The Soviet Union and the Space Race (PDF Download), helps answer that question.

Space Policy Edition: The Soviet Moonshot (with Asif Siddiqi)

The U.S. won the space race in July of 1969 with the success of Apollo 11. But was the Soviet Union even racing? How close were they to beating the United States to the Moon?