I enjoy the space race victory but I have not been able to get it so far in Civ 5, in Civ 4 I use to get it all the time.
But I seem to be getting cultural or diplomatic victories by accident (meaning I don't really have to try I just get it easily) way before space race even becomes available.
Personally I think that they need to adjust the space race so it can be obtained a bit quicker, as it is now it just takes too long to build teh apollo program + all the parts. The parts in my oppenion just cost too much to build.