Quote Originally Posted by Sarmatian View Post
That's your prerogative but the moon landing was a publicity stunt mostly. Yes, it does rouse the human spirit, in a climbing Mont Everest kind of way, but it had little practical purpose.

It is also quite ludicrous to claim that Soviets stole most of their space technology. In 2012, USA and EU use Russian rockets to get stuff in space, not the other way around.
The Soviets stole most of their technology, period. Their command economy couldn't take full advantage of it. The pride of great nations is a bit more than a publicity stunt. Now we have sports, then we had space. Which one matters more?

Russian rockets are little more than converted ICBMs and most certainly NOT a result of any technological supremacy.