My possibly controversial take is that the original moon race would have been a lot more sustainable if the US hadn't attempted to land (at first). The Soviets

My possibly controversial take is that the original moon race would have been a lot more sustainable if the US hadn't attempted to land (at first). The Soviets could likely have built a rocket which also orbited the moon, based on Vostok / Soyuz. With both superpowers fairly evenly matched, the space race would have continued in earnest, rather than the US essentially winning and then sliding into complacency.