To what extent did the race to space reflect political, social, and economic aspects of the cold war?

The space race was a competition between Soviet Russia and the United States in order to attain the most in field of space travel. It became the most important part if the competition during the Cold War.

The Soviets in Russia wanted to manifest that a communist country has the ability to achieve something in technological developments. After the launch of Sputnik, US then want to create something in order to prove themselves to the Russians.