Did the USSR lose the “moon race” to the USA? Why were American astronauts the first to land on the Moon, ahead of Soviet cosmonauts? Could it have been otherwise, did the Soviet Union have a chance to beat the United States in the space competition in the late 60s? What role did events play in this that seemed unrelated to the implementation of the Soviet lunar program: the tragic death of cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov on the Soyuz spacecraft? 1", the crash of the plane on which the first cosmonaut of the Earth Yuri Gagarin flew, the unsuccessful space flight of Georgy Beregovoy in the fall of 1968? And is there any reason to consider the Soviet Union a loser?