Yep. Which is why we took enormous risks and end up losing 3 astronauts in Apollo 1, which wasn't even a proper spaceflight, on our way to beat them to the Moon

Yep. Which is why we took enormous risks and end up losing 3 astronauts in Apollo 1, which wasn't even a proper spaceflight, on our way to beat them to the Moon. Russians lost 4 cosmonauts as well on 2 separate missions. Like I said. Poisoned well.