Suppose that during any period of 1/4 second there is one instant at which the crests or troughs of component waves are exactly in phase and maximum reinforcement occurs. how many beats will occur in 1 second

Well I'm not sure what the question is referring to but I would say 4

The soviet union beat the us to the first successful launch, with the october 4, 1957, orbiting of sputnik 1, and later beat the us to have the first human in earth orbit, yuri gagarin, on april 12, 1961. the "race" peaked with the july 20, 1969, us landing of the first humans on the moon with apollo 11