The first American satellite was launched less than 4 months after USSR Sputnik. The first American in space was less than 1 month after Gagarin. The US and Soviet Union were essentially deadlocked in a race.
Meanwhile it’s been decades since the US successfully landed a rover on Mars. There’s no comparison.
The US was only months behind the Soviets at the outset of the Space Race, then got thoroughly crushed by Apollo.
The US landed a rover on Mars over 2 decades ago. There’s no comparison between the two.
