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While the Space Race is often visualized as a vertical contest—a dramatic climb towards the moon between two superpowers—it was equally a horizontal struggle for influence across the globe. From the moment Sputnik beeped over every nation on Earth, its signal was as much a political broadcast as a scientific one, a clear demonstration that the future would be shaped by the nation that controlled the high ground of technology and prestige. This realization triggered a parallel, terrestrial competition: the battle for the “Third World.”