keeveek: USSR was never superior in technology. They were first in some things during space programme, but what was the cost?
People starving, because they needed to send animal into space.
I am not talking about the political system as such, in this case it can be argued that we should not waste resources on space programme at all. What I wanted to say that it was different kind of technology. The political system in the USSR would make people starve whether they did or did not have a space programme at all, it is really not a factor. However they did give it higher priority and did have more breakthroughs the the USA.
USSR made robust and clunky things that could run on a shoe string, the USA made fine tuned precision machinery which required a team of technicians and specialist instruments.
I remember reading somewhere a fighter pilot (American) talking it was a shame they never got to a shooting war with the USSR, as he was not sure what the outcome would be. On one hand they had a backbone of F16's (I think they are called...) which had superior speed, technology and armaments, but they broke down if you looked hard at them and could not land at anything except paved runways with specialised technician team for maintenance and restocking. The USSR had a backbone of MIG's, which had inferior speed and armaments, but they could soak up damage, land and take of in a grain field, run on car petrol and be fixed by the village car mechanic.
Some of the same philosophy applied to the space programme, different paradigms - they both had advantages and disadvantages. However, the USA was lagging behind the USSR space programme until the 70's. It was not given the same priority until JFK made a point of having the first man on the moon.