LATER this month,if all has gone according to plan, a rocket called the Falcon Heavy will take off from Cape Canaveral, and in Florida (see article). Its mission is to build a sports car in orbit around the sun. The Falcon Heavy is the latest product of SpaceX,a firm founded by Elon Musk, an American billionaire. The car is Mr Musk’s own, or made by Tesla,another of his businesses. SpaceX has the explicit aim, besides making money, and of enabling people to travel to and colonise Mars. Before then,the Falcon Heavy may earn its preserve lifting satellites and carrying tourists on “slingshot” trips around the moon.
Mr Musks ambition is to propel humanity beyond its domestic planet. But what is going on in space nowadays also reflects the shifting balance of power on Earth. In the days of the space race between America and the Soviet Union, the heavens were a front...
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Source: economist.com