[SJSAMPLE]

The USSR launched the first satellite into orbit, put the first satellite on the moon, was the first to put a man into space, first to put a man into orbit, first to put a woman into space, had the first person to eat in space, the first space walk, had the first casualty from a space flight, and in 1988 they built a shuttle that could launch, orbit, navigate and then land all through computer programming. Literally, the Russians could send people into space without having to teach them how to fly first. Yeah, these guys are the ones who lost the Space Race.

Idiocy.
The Buran only flew ONCE, and never flew with a single person on board.
It currently dilapidates in an outdoor "museum".

Some "win".

The Russians were, indeed, true pioneers in space and it took the US some time to catch and SURPASS them.
But, in the end, it WAS the US that made it to the moon.
So much so, that the Russians (or anybody else) never even attempted a manned landing after that.

[cripplecreek]

Lots of problems with this kid’s logic. He omits the fact that the first spacewalker very nearly became the first humanoid space junk when his suit swelled up so much that he couldn’t get through the hatch to return to the craft. He nearly killed himself releasing pressure to a level where he could get in.

A russian friend tells me that the Buran Shuttle even did duty as an ice cream shop in a park for a while.

I didn’t realize it till the other day but the Russians crashed a robotic lander on the moon while Apollo 11 was orbiting. They knew they weren’t going to beat us with men so they wanted to return some samples first. The fact that the lander smeared itself across the surface put them out of that race.

Like you I agree that the Russians had some amazing success but their success only pushed us to try harder and put them to shame.

[I Buried My Guns]

"...The Buran only flew ONCE, and never flew with a single person on board..."

The Buran is one of the factors credited with bringing down the Soviet Union. The incredibly high cost of if used up all their hard currency which was normally used to buy goods from other countries. They simply did not have enough money to both pursue the Buran program AND operate a totalitarian police state.

Poor guys.