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The United States directed the Space Race to landing humans Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin (pictured) on the Moon.

The Soviet Union, failing to land humans on the Moon, concentrated on low Earth orbit space stations such as Mir.

The Space Race was a 20th-century competition between two Cold War enemies, the Soviet Union (USSR) and the United States (US), to achieve better spaceflight capability than the other. It had its origins in the intercontinental ballistic missile-based nuclear arms race between the two nations following World War II. Both governments saw having better spaceflight technology as necessary for national security. The Space Race enabled the first launches of artificial satellites, uncrewed space probes to the Moon, Venus, and Mars, and human spaceflight in low Earth orbit and ultimately to the Moon.