It affected them because they would both use technology in space to create weapons so they could be more superior, with those weapons.  they would go to war that is why it affected both of them. 
The Soviet Union was the first nation to ever create a true space program.  

Political Impact : people began to think differently of their government and system since they were very successful. 

The Space Race  brought popular support for the space program and a newfound patriotism after the horrors of WWll. 

The Space Race  also brought popular support for the space program and a newfound patriotism after the horrors of WWll to the U.S.  It was also beneficial to the United States government because it removed attention from the violent aspect of the Cold War.  

By landing the first man on the moon, the United States effectively “won” the space race. 

Launch of Sputnik 1 : Soviet Union successfully launched Sputnik 1, the world’s first artificial satellite

Launch of Sputnik 2 : Less than a month after the successful launch of Sputnik 1, the Soviet space program achieved another major ‘victory’ in the Space Race. On November 3, 1957, the USSR successfully launched the second spacecraft into the Earth’s orbit - Sputnik 2. 

Launch of Explorer 1 : After the launch of Sputnik 1 and 2, the United States stepped up in its efforts to launch its own artificial satellite and on January 31, 1958, the Army Ballistic Missile Agency (ABMA) successfully launched Explorer 1.

Launch of Vostok 1 : Vostok 1 was the greatest Soviet triumph in the Space Race. On April 12, 1961, the Vostok spacecraft took off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome; it was carrying Yuri Gagarin (1934-1961) who became the first human in history to travel into space.

Launch of Mercury- Redstone 3 : The Soviets beat the United States with the first successful human spaceflight but just a few weeks after Vostok 1, NASA launched its own “Vostok program” - the Project Mercury.

Apollo 11 Moon Landing : Soon after the launch of the Project Mercury, NASA laid down plans for the first (manned) Moon landing.

By the late 1989 the Berlin Wall started to come down. Shortly thereafter, talks between East and West German officials, joined by officials from the United States, Great Britain, France, and the USSR, began to explore the possibility of reunification. Two months following reunification, all-German elections took place and Helmut Kohl became the first chancellor of the reunified Germany. 

1. Glasnost - (in the former Soviet Union) the policy or practice of more open consultative government and wider dissemination of information, initiated by leader Mikhail Gorbachev from 1985.

2.Perestroika - (in the former Soviet Union) the policy or practice of restructuring or reforming the economic and political system. First proposed by Leonid Brezhnev in 1979 and actively promoted by Mikhail Gorbachev, perestroika originally referred to increased automation and labor efficiency, but came to entail greater awareness of economic markets and the ending of central planning.

3.Mikhail Gorbachev - 

Positive - 

pledged American support for the people of Europe 

 was not just about supporting the rights of a majority against the armed might of a minority, it also had a strategic bearing to it.

purpose - to ease the USSR demands in Turkey and to stabilize the government in Greece to prevent the spread of communism.

Negative - 

one of the first major actions in the Cold War
2.Bay of Pigs Invasion -   was a failed military invasion of Cuba undertaken by the CIA-sponsored paramilitary group Brigade 2506 on 17 April 1961. A counter-revolutionary military, trained and funded by the United States government's Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Brigade 2506 fronted the armed wing of the Democratic Revolutionary Front (DRF) and intended to overthrow the increasingly communist government of Fidel Castro. Launched from Guatemala, the invading force was defeated within three days by the Cuban Revolutionary Armed Forces, under the direct command of Prime Minister Fidel Castro.

Cuban Missile Crisis - The Cuban Missile Crisis was the closest the world ever came to nuclear war. The United States armed forces were at their highest state of readiness ever and Soviet field commanders in Cuba were prepared to use battlefield nuclear weapons to defend the island if it was invaded. Luckily, thanks to the bravery of two men, President John F. Kennedy and Premier Nikita Khrushchev, war was averted. 

During the conference, the three leaders agreed to demand Germany’s unconditional surrender and began plans for a post-war world. Stalin also agreed to permit free elections in Eastern Europe and to enter the Asian war against Japan, for which he was promised the return of lands lost to Japan in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-05.
 2. Who attended.
The Yalta Conference was a meeting of British prime minister Winston Churchill, Soviet premier Joseph Stalin, and President Franklin D. Roosevelt early in February 1945 as World War II was winding down.