<p>With the rise of radical Islamic terrorism in the east, nuclear threats from Russia, and the growing fear that crooked Hillary Clinton will become the next US president, it&rsquo;s easy to believe that America is no longer the greatest country in the world. ;</p>
<p>But we&rsquo;re still the best at a lot of things, and this photo proves that the United States still takes the cake when it comes to space exploration. ;</p>
<p>The US launched Mars rover &ldquo;Curiosity,&rdquo; in 2011, and the little guy is till taking photos and sending data back to Earth. The image at left ;shows Curiosity ;exploring the Gale Crater on Mars (October 2015). ;</p>
<p>Of the 53 missions to Mars attempted since 1960, only 23 have been successful. Of those successes, 18 were launched by the US.</p>
<p>Like nuclear power and global influence, the race to explore Mars has been dominated by Russia and the United States. The Soviets ;launched their first lander (Sputnik 24) towards Mars in 1962. The spacecraft barely made it into low Earth orbit before falling back to the planet&rsquo;s surface just one day later. ;</p>
<p>NASA ;made the first successful Mars flyby in 1964. Since then, the US has made seven successful landings on the Red Planet. ;<em>The rest of the world has made none. ;</em></p>
<p>Russia has attempted each new Martian feat before the US, but the glory of the first flyby, orbiter, lander, and rover all went to America &ndash; each time just after the Russian failure.</p>
<p>The credit for &ldquo;first crash landing&rdquo; goes to Russia, however, with the Mars 2 lander crashing during its descent to the Red Planet. The next Russian lander, Mars 3, arrived during a dust storm and was destroyed less than 15 seconds after landing. ;</p>
<p>The Soviets&rsquo; next attempt, the Mars 7 mission in 1974, malfunctioned and missed its target by over 800 miles. ;</p>
<p>The first successful landings occurred in the 70&rsquo;s, when NASA&rsquo;s Viking 1 and Viking 2 were able to deploy landers to the surface of Mars.</p>
<p>The United States has had only one failure in the quest to explore Mars &#8211; the &#8220;Mars Climate Orbiter,&#8221; which crashed into Mars in 1999 due to a miscalculation.</p>