<P> Apollo 11 left lunar orbit and returned to Earth, landing safely in the Pacific Ocean on July 24, 1969 . When the spacecraft splashed down, 2,982 days had passed since Kennedy's commitment to landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth before the end of the decade; the mission was completed with 161 days to spare . With the safe completion of the Apollo 11 mission, the Americans won the race to the Moon . </P> <P> NASA had ambitious follow - on human spaceflight plans as it reached its lunar goal, but soon discovered it had expended most of its political capital to do so . </P> <P> The first landing was followed by another, precision landing on Apollo 12 in November 1969 . NASA had achieved its first landing goal with enough Apollo spacecraft and Saturn V launchers left for eight follow - on lunar landings through Apollo 20, conducting extended - endurance missions and transporting the landing crews in Lunar Roving Vehicles on the last five . They also planned an Apollo Applications Program to develop a longer - duration Earth orbital workshop (later named Skylab) to be constructed in orbit from a spent S - IVB upper stage, using several launches of the smaller Saturn IB launch vehicle . But planners soon decided this could be done more efficiently by using the two live stages of a Saturn V to launch the workshop pre-fabricated from an S - IVB (which was also the Saturn V third stage), which immediately removed Apollo 20 . Belt - tightening budget cuts soon led NASA to cut Apollo 18 and 19 as well, but keep three extended / Lunar Rover missions . Apollo 13 encountered an in - flight spacecraft failure and had to abort its lunar landing in April 1970, returning its crew safely but temporarily grounding the program again . It resumed with four successful landings on Apollo 14 (February 1971), Apollo 15 (July 1971), Apollo 16 (April 1972), and Apollo 17 (December 1972). </P> <P> In February 1969, President Richard M. Nixon convened a Space Task Group to set recommendations for the future US civilian space program, headed by his Vice President Spiro T. Agnew . Agnew was an enthusiastic proponent of NASA's follow - on plans, and the STG recommended plans to develop a reusable Space Transportation System including a Space Shuttle, which would facilitate development of permanent space stations in Earth and lunar orbit, perhaps a base on the lunar surface, and the first human flight to Mars as early as 1986 or as late as 2000 . Nixon had a better sense of the declining political support in Congress for a new Apollo - style program, which had disappeared with the achievement of the landing, and he intended to pursue detente with the USSR and China, which he hoped might ease Cold War tensions . He cut the spending proposal he sent to Congress to include funding for only the Space Shuttle, with perhaps an option to pursue the Earth orbital space station for the foreseeable future . </P>

Who was the president of the soviet union during the space race