Article is misleading, the military is still sending rockets, and it was sending rockets way before spunik.
Nasa is backwards. No other nation has a civilian rocket program. It syphons our military and it syphons private industry competitiveness.
So is USA’s lead in space race comfortable? Or are other countries close to their own version of SpaceX?
I am not trying to put down astronauts and visionaries from other countries and space should be shared but:
Even the International Space Station (which Trump is thinking of spurring on towards privatization) - seems like the United Nations to me: a “global” institution we pay for and sustain but then gives rise to anti-American forces designed to undermine us and diminish our leadership in the end...
I just think “America First” needs to be back en vogue even in space.