The moon race was about short-termism and control – we can do better

WHEN the Soviet Union put the first satellite, Sputnik 1, into orbit in 1957, Lyndon Johnson, then a US senator, stoked the idea that it was an affront to American prestige. “Control of space means control of the world,” he said. In 1961, President John F. Kennedy agreed with the sentiment and committed to putting a man on the moon that decade.

The subsequent success of the Apollo programme was one of the most extraordinary achievements in human history, and our special issue this week explores its…