B) the space race ended when the US landed on the moon, if you run a 5k and get to 4.9k ahead of everyone but then don’t cross the finish line, you’ve still lost the race

Im not sure how to explain to you that if youre the one declaring what the goal is, you essentially declare yourself the winner. If I declare that the first person to be in space is the winner of the space race, the UDSSR won? It's what the meme is hinting at

the Soviets had everything they needed to absolutely dominate space travel but their authoritarianism hindered their scientific progress significantly

A) every single state in this planet is authoritarian. What matters is the class character. Read this: https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1872/10/authority.htm

B) habe you considered that the reason the Soviet had everything they needed to absolutely dominate space travel was due to the system they had?