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"By taking stupendous risks with human lives the US was able to beat the Soviet Union's cold war challenge in space. "

Yes and no. The moon landings were not a Soviet challenge, but a self-set US goal. While it is of course true that the US was the first to put a man on the moon and bring him home again alive, the USSR beat the US to pretty much every other milestone, including but not limited to:

1. Launching the first satellite.
2. Putting the first animal into space.
3. Bringing the first animal back from space, alive.
4. Putting a man in space.
5. Putting a woman in space.
6. Putting a man into orbit.
7. Putting the first object on the moon.
8. The first spacewalk.
9. Putting the first remote control lander on another body (the moon).

All in all, the USSR won the space race, though the US won the race-within-a-race to get to the moon. Even then, the USSR had a craft up there, orbiting the landing site and taking high quality photographs of what was happening below.

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