Editing Space Race (section)

=== Historians' analysis ===
The Space Race was deeply intertwined with Cold War rivalries and reflected broader ideological contests between the United States and the Soviet Union. Historian Walter McDouglass highlights how space exploration served as a demonstration of each superpower's political and technological systems, with the U.S. emphasizing transparency and democratic values, and the USSR showcasing the capabilities of its centralized, state-driven model.<ref name=":2">{{Cite web |title=The Heavens and the Earth: A Political History of the Space Age - Foreign Policy Research Institute |url=https://www.fpri.org/books/the-heavens-and-the-earth-a-political-history-of-the-space-age/ |access-date=2024-12-07 |website=www.fpri.org |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=The Heavens and the Earth: A Political History of the Space Age |url=https://www.history.upenn.edu/publications/walter-mcdougall |website=history.upenn.edu}}</ref> [[Asif Azam Siddiqi|Asif A. Siddiqi]] stresses the importance of viewing the Space Race as more than a single-event competition. He notes that while the U.S. achieved the symbolic "big one" with the Apollo missions, the Soviet Union's early and sustained achievements in robotic lunar and interplanetary exploration reveal the broader, multi-faceted nature of the rivalry.<ref name="AAS" />