&gt; The mission was rushed, politically motivated, and a failure.<p>Polyus was, yes. Energia performed well.<p>&gt; After the 60s the USSR space program was a mess of failures and catching up to NASA.<p>You mean <i>after</i> the end of the moon landings? When NASA was, essentially, dicking around and trying to figure out what to do with their expensive new toy, while doing a handful (quite PR effective) probe launches?<p>Roskosmos, meanwhile, launched six Saljut stations, Mir, and about as many planetary missions as the rest of the world combined, including the first extraplanetary rovers.<p>&gt; Considering the massive bodycount of the USSR space program (Soyuz 1, Nedelin catastrophe, Soyuz 11, etc)<p>&quot;Etc.&quot;? That&#x27;s it. NASA has a higher body count between Apollo 1, Challenger and Columbia, Ignoring the Nedelin catastrophe, which was completely unrelated to the space program – ICBM accidents hardly count, or we could add <i>a lot</i> more fatalities on both sides, e.g. close to sixty alone from Titan II accidents in the USA.