And the USSR decidedly pwned America at every space medal but one. After America won one medal, we decided that was the one that actually counted, we forgot all that happened previously, because the USSR won them, and we stopped doing any more, lest the USSR win them.

If the point was to prove which economic system is better, the outcome was clear: totalitarian dictatorship with a solid education system far outcompetes capitalism with strong government intervention. In fact it seems that the more there's a guy at the top forcing everyone to work towards an achievable goal, the more likely the goal is to be achieved. There are other reasons to dislike totalitarian dictatorships, of course.