im a firm believer that usa landed on the moon. but i wonder why no one has been there ?so there was a race to the moon with russia , but they never continued their program. and no one since
Another factor to consider about why the Soviets never landed on the Moon is that this was the era of the Cold War. For those who didn't live through it, it can be hard to comprehend how so many activities of the two superpowers were undertaken with the intent of showing themselves in the best light and The Other Guys in the worst light. Hence the tension which accompanied even the Olympic Games, and why, for example, the members of the American basketball team of the 1972 Olympics have never accepted their silver medals following defeat by the Soviets.
In fact, those unclaimed medals are a perfect example for illustrating why the Soviets never seriously tried to land cosmonauts on the Moon once the Americans had succeeded.
The Space Race, like so many other aspects of the Cold War, was a two horse race: no other nations could afford to take part. In a two horse race, the only possible finishing positions are first and second, and second is equivalent to last.
So once the Americans had landed on the Moon, they'd won the Space Race. That meant the only position the Soviets could take in that race was second, and remember, second = last.
If the Soviets landed on the Moon after Apollo 11, it would only draw attention to the fact that they'd come second (= last) in the Space Race.
So just like the American basketballers refusing to accept medals which reminded everyone that they'd come second, the Soviets made loud noises about never having been in a Space Race. By pretending they hadn't been in a race, they could divert attention from the fact that they'd lost a race they had in fact very much been taking part in.
What puts the lie to this claim is that the Soviets were happy to accepts the plaudits of the world when they were first to achieve things in space - first satellite, first man in space, first woman in space, first three man crew, first space walk. They just went sort of quiet when things didn't go their way.
The other thing to consider about these achievements is the risks they knowingly took for the last two. Read about what the Soviets did to launch three men into space and it sends a chill down your spine; the propaganda value was high, but so were the risks.
In terms of the Moon they did two things. Firstly, they developed unmanned sample retriever missions and unmanned rovers, and secondly, they developed space stations.
The sample retriever missions and the rovers allowed them to sample and explore the Moon without sending anyone. It was safer and cheaper than Apollo, and the Soviets made sure everyone knew that. But these missions also achieved a lot less than Apollo - the total amount of material their three successful sample return missions brought back was about 1/1000 of what the Apollo missions brought back.
The space stations allowed them to set records in a field of manned space flight well ahead of what the Americans had achieved, or were likely to achieve any time in the near future. They were also a lot safer than missions to the Moon, on the grounds that they were inside the Van Allen Belts, and theoretically only an hour or so from the Earth if disaster struck.
To summarise, the Soviets didn't make a serious attempt to land people on the Moon once Apollo 11 had succeeded, because it would have drawn attention to the fact that they'd been beaten in the Space Race. In their view, wearing a silver medal would've reminded everyone all the more that The Other Guys were wearing the gold medal.
