Eli5: why was the US the first to make it to the moon despite the USSR being first in nearly everything else in the Space Race?

Question

Eli5: why was the US the first to make it to the moon despite the USSR being first in nearly everything else in the Space Race?

In: 14546

Answer 1

Lots of “US announced first” on here but it has to do with miniaturization as well. The US was all in on getting rocket based nukes on subs and making the warheads smaller. The USSR was more into bigger booms and larger rockets. When it came to building an ICBM, the Soviet R7 could lift 5500kg into low earth orbit and the Vostok could do around 5000kg. The US had the Juipter (non LEO), the Juno/Vanguard rockets (12kg to LEO) and a year later the SM-65 Atlas (1,100kg) Basically, the US had the more advanced and lighter warheads while the USSR had the bigger rockets.