The Space Race (Russian: Космическая гонка [kɐsˈmʲitɕɪskəjə ˈɡonkə]) was a 20th-century competition between two Cold War rivals, the United States and the Soviet Union, to achieve superior spaceflight capability. It had its origins in the ballistic missile-based nuclear arms race between the two nations following World War II and had its peak with the more particular Moon Race to land on the Moon between the US moonshot and Soviet moonshot programs.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Race