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Space Race tabletop game
6187
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Table of contents
Language of Material:
French
Contributing Institution:
USC Libraries Special Collections
Title: Space Race tabletop game
Identifier/Call Number: 6187
Physical Description:
1 Linear Feet
1 box
Date: circa 1960s
Abstract: The Space Race tabletop game is a midcentury educational game based on the Space Race of the 1950s and 1960s between the Soviet
Union and the United States, housed inside of a hinged wooden box illustrated with planets and Soviet and U.S. rockets. Players
are intended to use the game's revolving spring-loaded wooden launcher to launch small plastic rockets into target cups representing
various planets and rockets. The Space Race officially began on August 2, 1955, when the Soviet Union responded to the announcement
made by the United States four days earlier of their intent to launch artificial satellites, by declaring that they would
also launch a satellite in the near future. This game features major figures from the Space Race, with the red launch rocket
(and corresponding red target cup and accompanying illustration) referring to Yuri Gagarin, the first human to orbit Earth,
and the yellow launch rocket (and corresponding yellow target cup and accompanying illustration) referring to Leroy Gordon
Cooper, the U.S. astronaut who piloted the longest and final Mercury spaceflight in 1963. The other target cups have labels
(in French) for the moon, Mars, Venus, Saturn, Neptune, and Pluto. The game was created in France (no publisher specified),
circa 1960s (undated).
Container: 1
This collection includes the game's two original plastic rockets for launching, a set of score-keeping beads, and the revolving
spring-loaded wooden launcher, all housed in the original hinged wooden box. Color illustrations of Soviet and U.S. rockets
and satellites in space are affixed to both the interior and exterior of the box's lid. The game's eight different target
cups bearing the names of various planets and rockets are also affixed to the box's interior lid.
Advance notice required for access.
All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Manuscripts Librarian.
Permission for publication is given on behalf of Special Collections as the owner of the physical items and is not intended
to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained.
[Box/folder no. or item name], Space Race tabletop game, Collection no. 6187, Special Collections, USC Libraries, University
of Southern California
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Purchased from F.A. Bernett Books, April 10, 2019.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Educational games -- France -- 20th century -- Archival resources
Rockets (Aeronautics) -- Launching
Space race -- United States -- Archival resources
Space race -- Soviet Union -- Archival resources
Realia
Table games
Cooper, Gordon, 1927-2004
Gagarin, Yuri Alekseyevich, 1934-1968