According to Boris Chertok (see NASA books, "Rockets and People"), a control specialist of the early soviet space program, the lack of good digital computers wa

According to Boris Chertok (see NASA books, "Rockets and People"), a control specialist of the early soviet space program, the lack of good digital computers was one factor in losing the race to the moon. The early space missions were controlled by electromechanical sequencers, basically the technology you find in old washing machines. They did some marvelous purely analog systems for attitude control, though.