Once US was landing on the moon? What kind of achievements you&#x27;d like to have?<p>Planetary probes, like Lunokhods - several weeks of Moon exploration? Or Luna-16 - automatic probe which brought lunar soil to Earth? You can say that&#x27;s less impressive than Apollos, and I&#x27;d agree, but that still different things - which USA couldn&#x27;t do at the time, and those programs had some advantages over Apollos too. Or a series of Venera probes, including landers? Mastery of automated docking? Orbital stations - starting with Salyut-1 - with myriads of experiments (medical, industrial etc.)? Rocket engines - more advanced than American ones by such criteria as working process (gas-gas was tested during 1960&#x27;s in RD-270 with single chamber thrust rather similar to F-1), Isp and mass ratio (NK-33), total thrust (RD-170)? VEGA comet fly-by?<p>By which criteria these don&#x27;t count?