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Well, because obviously the finish line of the space race was the Moon.

Had the Soviets declared the line on the "first woman in space", now we probably would use Soviet GPS, we would use Soviet maps of planet surfaces, we would have Soviet Mars rovers, Soviet Voyager... You get the idea.

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> Well, because obviously the finish line of the space race was the Moon.

So, this choice is not super obvious to me. If it was called the moon race or whatever, I'd get it. But in this case it just feels like making up rules after the fact to make sure you "win".

EDIT: I just realized you might be saying this sarcastically. I'm really bad at picking up on that sort of stuff, and apologize if that's the case.

it got silly when you wrote "first woman"

Why?

My point is that the "space race" didn't really have a finish line, and despite early Soviet successes, the Americans ultimately took the lead. Because they sustained that momentum continuing to explore deep space, putting people on the Moon, and achieving all kinds of successes while the Soviets stalled and scrapped their programs, it's commonly understood (in the West, anyway, as Moon landing denialism is surprisingly rampant elsewhere) that the Americans won the race.

No need to apologize. In any case, I should apologize for hiding my point behind sarcasm.

/s

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