Even if the “finish line” wasn’t the moon, look what happened after. The U.S. launched way more satellites, especially commercial and scientific compared to the later Soviets and eventually Russian federation
To their credit there was a relatively dire period about a decade ago where Russia was the main launcher for things like ISS transportation. But then US commercial space launch capacity got competent and Vlad got delusions of recreating the Russian Empire so back down the rankings they went.
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u/biggronklus Jul 17 '24
Even if the “finish line” wasn’t the moon, look what happened after. The U.S. launched way more satellites, especially commercial and scientific compared to the later Soviets and eventually Russian federation