text: how did the space race affected the cold war? 3 reasons how did the space race affect the cold war? or- tell how the space race affected the cold war?  which question did your teacher assign for you to answer? he/she went to some trouble to teach you this information and to craft this question.  the least you could do is give us his/her specific question and not bastardize the wording.  anyway i'll give you a start 1.  us focused education on math and science - created several grants and free college money in order to make better scientists to compete with ussr/russia  2.  paranoia (space race could be them readying weapons) lead each country to ready massive retaliation strikes which prevented any offensive strikes.  3. competition lead both countries to hurry up the tech front.  dominance over the space frontier showed the other country who had the superior weapons and was suppose to create fear and stop the other country from attacking.