Answer:
The correct answer is B. The Soviet Union indeed launched the first satellite to successfully orbit Earth and sent the first person into space.
Step-by-step explanation:
The Space Race was the competition established between the United States and the Soviet Union for space exploration during Cold War.
On October 4, 1957, the Soviet Union was able to orbit the Sputnik, for the first time in history, orbiting the earth. Although this was officially another scientific act during the International Geophysical Year, the event was welcomed by the United States as a threat to its superiority in the military and communications fields.
Only four months after the launch of Sputnik the Americans launched their first Explorer I satellite and in 1958 they launched SCORE, the first communications satellite.
From then on, outstanding events took place: the first animals, men, women, or trips to the outside of the capsule, and so on. The USSR was taking the lead, and the United States immediately responded. But when the objective was to bring an astronaut to the moon, the Soviets began to show signs of weakness.
The official end of the space race took place on July 17, 1975, with the meeting in the space of the crews of the Apollo and Soiuz ships. This was politically significant, as the process of changing the political regime in the USSR had not yet begun.