Space race victory...

I'm playing a game with my friend that's taking a long, long time to finish since we can barely ever play (we can't play on the internet anymore since a new patch has been released and it invalidates saved games...right?).

Anyway, one of the victories we have is for Space Race. I know a bit about it, basically knowing that the first to actually create the spaceship wins. But then, is there any way at all to stop this? Me and my friend haven't really made much SS stuff or whatever so all the computers are basically ahead of us in this way. We're good militarily and democracy-wise and such, just not so much for the sake of actually making the space ship.

Is there any way to stop them from winning short of nuking and killing them all? Are we doomed to lose?

Thanks!

Yes, no and no.

Meaning, yes there is a way to stop them, but no not without a war. You are not doomed to lose, however, as there are many ways to get your spaceship done ahead of the AI even if you're way behind when you start building it. Go to the Strategy sub-forum, there are threads there discussing how.