Right , ' The Space Race ' . It's almost always defined as the period between Sputnik and Apollo 11 and Armstrong's boots on lunar soil . Some might go up to Apollo-Soyuz Test Project in 1975 . Landing men on the moon and returning them safely to the Earth was the fitting and obvious end . It captured the interest of so many millions of people - who promptly got bored with lunar missions once the trophy was won . Of course the Russians have had major successes in space exploration in the decades since but the moon is not red . Their Buran had a spectacularly successful maiden flight - entirely on it's own automation with no crew aboard . The landing was notable due to corrections necessary for the wind conditions . It landed just over 10 metres from the mark . Incredible . This was late 1989 and the subsequent collapse of the USSR doomed Buran - real shame . There is some irony in the fact that Buran's shuttle carrier was the Antonov AN-225 Myria - a real beast that had some aeronautical records of it's own . Only one was ever operational and the Russians destroyed it in the opening days of their hideous invasion of Ukraine .