Things were going bad with respect to the USA, though.
There were only two things that would allow the Congolese to reach the starts first. The first thing is called "AI city production logic". The second one is called "nukes".
The AI builds spaceship parts in cities that have the necessary hammer production relative to the cost of the spaceship part. The AI also re-checks its production every turn. Note that the first sentence in that paragraph didn't include the words "hammers already sunk into building a spaceship part". Also note that a nuke is harmful to the hammer production of a city. Therefore,
That's my hypothesis, anyway. I can't think of any other explanation that caused the USA to switch production in Washington to Barracks.
Civilization was sold to foreign buyers. Congo needed money for the nukes.
American nuclear submarines devastated Eastern Africa, but it was one of the least productive parts of Congo, anyway.
The greatest Congolese heist was nuking the area around New York, and then disembarking there troops with special protection equipment, completely devastating the northern part of East Coast.
An attempt to house tactical nukes in Florida failed when American armies moved there. But Texas still felt what it is like to be nuked.
Then, it was the turn of southern Canada:
Springbok was the most significant Congolese city that suffered a severe retailatory strike. Such industrial centers as Mbanza Kongo, Quelimane, Kalemie, Douala (that was finishing one of the last spaceship parts), Kisangani remained intact.
American SDI intercepted the strikes at Denver and Saskatoon, but not on the West Coast.
Mexico proved to be a more safe guardian of Congolese tactical nukes then Spanish Florida.
The devastation of a large part of American territory meant that the Congolese spaceship was launched first.
The World. Yeah, it's the British in Mongolia.
Congolese celebrated their upcoming victory with wine from monasteries near the Kongo delta.
And, finally,
At the last turn, the British were 14 turns before their own launch. The Americans were 10 turns before, their last part being built in the city of Spokane.