HistoryThe StorytellerBeginner
The Great Race to the Stars, a free history course on Tomo

The Great Race to the Stars

Like Duolingo, but for The Great Race to the Stars. Tomo turns the whole topic into a game you play five minutes a day, until it actually sticks.

For the part of you with thirty open tabs that never became anything.

A deep dive: 88 levels across 5 sections, about 176 minutes end to end, roughly 35 days at five minutes a day. It moves through How the Race Started, Living Things Leave the Earth, Learning to Work in Space, The Giant Leap to the Moon, and From Rivals to Friends. It starts from scratch.

88 bite-size levelsAbout 5 minutes each

Free forever · No credit card · iPhone & Android

Stella the Star-Gazer, the guide who teaches the The Great Race to the Stars course
The Great Race to the Stars
with Stella the Star-Gazer
88
Levels
5
Sections
5
Min/day
What you'll learn

Key ideas in The Great Race to the Stars

  • Space achievements as political propaganda
  • Satellite launches as proof of ICBM technology
  • Military panic over satellite launches
  • Manned missions as proof of engineering reliability
  • The USSR promoted space wins as proof of communist efficiency
  • The US promoted its program as a triumph of free-market innovation
  • The race began with the development of long-range missiles
  • Satellite launches preceded human spaceflight attempts
  • Space achievements served as propaganda for political ideologies
  • The link between political ideology and national goals
  • Satellite launches proved ICBM technology worked
  • The escalation of the race from early goals to high-stakes competition
  • Technological superiority in space implied military and missile capability
  • Developing satellite technology for global surveillance
  • Why the US and USSR viewed space as a critical arena for competition
  • Demonstrating the power of their respective rocket boosters
Why not just Google it

You've tried the other tabs

Wikipedia

Thirty open tabs. Four facts you actually kept.

YouTube

You watched. You nodded. By Sunday it was gone.

ChatGPT

One answer, then back to scrolling.

Online courses

Eight weeks. You meant to finish. You didn't.

Tomo gives The Great Race to the Stars the Duolingo treatment: levels, streaks, and quick quizzes that test what you just learned. That game loop is what the tabs above never had, so it's the one you actually finish.

Try a question

Here's what playing it feels like

A real question from this course. Take your best guess.

The High Stakes of Orbit

Imagine a world divided by two rival powers. Why would they spend billions just to put a metal ball in orbit?

Get it right to open this lesson and 87 more in the app.

Course map

Where The Great Race to the Stars takes you

Travel back to a time when two superpowers competed to leave the Earth behind. Discover the brave pilots, giant rockets, and incredible inventions that changed our world forever.

  1. 1

    How the Race Started

    • Two Countries with Big Dreams
    • The First Beep from Space
    • Why Everyone Was Scared and Excited
    • Building the First Rocket Teams
  2. 2

    Living Things Leave the Earth

    • The First Dog in Orbit
    • Chimpanzees in Space Suits
    • The First Human to Circle the Globe
    • America's First Space Hero
    • The Woman Who Flew to the Stars
    • Surviving the Trip Back Home
  3. 3

    Learning to Work in Space

    • Taking the First Space Walk
    • How to Park Two Ships Together
    • Living in a Tiny Metal Box
  4. 4

    The Giant Leap to the Moon

    • The Most Powerful Rocket Ever Built
    • A Sad Day on the Launch Pad
    • The Long Journey to the Lunar Surface
    • Walking on the Moon for the First Time
    • Bringing Moon Rocks Back to Earth
  5. 5

    From Rivals to Friends

    • The Famous Handshake in Orbit
    • Building a Home in the Sky Together
    • How Space Tech Changed Your Kitchen
    • What We Learned from the Race

5 sections · 22 units · 88 levels. Built to play, not to enroll.

How it's taught

You pick the voice

This course
The Storyteller

The Great Race to the Stars is taught in the The Storyteller style: every lesson is a story. Want a different feel? In the app you can spin up the same topic in any of Tomo's teaching styles. Same facts, totally different vibe.

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Start The Great Race to the Stars today.

Download Tomo, search The Great Race to the Stars, and play your first lesson in under a minute.