No, the battle was an economic one, never a science one. Let’s face it: both the US and Soviet Union had extremely capable scientists.
But the entire Cold War was about which economic system was the “best” and in the end, the Soviet Union frankly ran out of money and could not even test their Buran spacecraft before launching it to see it crash.
But the entire Cold War was about which economic system was the “best” and in the end, the Soviet Union frankly ran out of money and could not even test their Buran spacecraft before launching it to see it crash.
Running out of money is how you lose this battle.