What is your reaction to the beginning of Space Age and the Russian Space program?Both good and bad reactions would be appreciated.

If you are referring to the space race from 1957-1975,
than my opinion about it is that it was a fantastic thing.  I think space exploration is
really important for the long term longevity of the human race.  It is unfortunate that
space projects today revolve around such unimportant goals like going back to the move
just to show that we can still do it.

The competition
between the USA and the USSR accelerated what would have normally been a development
process full of red tape.  When there is healthy competition between two parties to
accomplish the same goal, the result is often favourable.  This effect is seen in the
market all of the time.  There are lots of businesses that offer the same services,
which puts pressure on companies to constantly be improving their products to give
themselves an edge over the competition.

Unfortunately
today that kind of competition in space exploration doesn't exist so we are chasing
pointless projects and surrounding launches with massive amounts of red
tape.