Liftoff!
Liftoff! is a board game published by Task Force Games in 1989 that simulates the international space race to land astronauts on the moon during the mid-20th century. Description Liftoff! is a four-player game in which players direct the space programs of the U.S., the Soviet Union, a European consortium and an unnamed Asian country. Each player attempts to turn their space program budget — which fluctuates due to successes and failures as well as public opinion and event cards — into a successful space program. The first step, set in the 1950s, is to use research and development (R&D) to launch a safe rocket that places a satellite in orbit. Players then progress through the historical sequence of test programs — Mercury/Vostok, Gemini/ Voskhod, Apollo/Soyuz. During the game, each director must make decisions about mission details, for example, what type of lunar lander to develop, or what type of hardware and what type of orbit to use to get from Earth to the Moon. Each director must also decide on the pace of development. As critic Rony Reichhardt noted, "In most cases, the prudent thing to do is to go slowly and invest in the research that improves your