Americans know Russia won the space race right? Asking because of something someone here said.

Not to take anything from Gagarin, but the Soviets and the USA both made much more significant space records. I see the Soviets and Americans as being dominant in different ways. The US has always dominated technically. A lot could be said there. Landing in the moon being at the top of the list. But the Soviets dominated in the sheer amount of time in space at the space station, and a lot of technical manouevers involving the space station.

So if your model of winning the space race being the first humans to live and work extended periods of times in space— the Soviets won. If it’s to get beyond our gravity and step on another world— we won.