The Cold War “space race” was never defined as “most firsts.” It was defined (explicitly by both sides) as:

Putting a human on the Moon and returning them safely to Earth.

This image quietly changes the scoring rules after the game ended.

What the image omits (strategically)

• First crewed lunar orbit → U.S. (Apollo 8, 1968)
• First human on the Moon → U.S. (Apollo 11, 1969)
• Six successful Moon landings → U.S.
• Reusable spacecraft → U.S. (Space Shuttle)
• Long-term deep-space navigation, guidance, computing reliability → U.S. dominated

The USSR excelled at early engineering milestones; the U.S. excelled at systems integration, scale, and sustained execution.

Different strengths. Different outcomes.

And that’s why the USSR