The New Space Race

by the Kremlin Gremlin, our Samara correspondent

Immediately I doubt my title. The Soviet Union had a presence in space continuously from Sputnik to the Mir Space Station. The Mir was killed off by NASA in an attempt to snaffle up Soviet technology for the new International Space Station. The ISS continues to be serviced by Soyuz (Union) rockets fired from Kazakhstan. The Space Race never died; the USSR just won. By the way, Mir in Russian can mean Peace or World – or according to Reagan “world domination”.

So this current epoch should be called the Space Race II. Everyone and his/her dog is getting in on the act. Elon Musk is reprising Moonraker. With no Space Shuttle any more, NASA is playing catch-up. All they have is some disappearing space probes, penetrating the vast blackness.

The North Koreans have a space agency that used to be called NADA and now – no doubt prompted by foreign ridicule – has been renamed NATA. They have recently launched a spy satellite.

The Cubans have got in on the act, using North Korean technology. In typical Cubic style, the budding spacepersons are going to be called Castronauts. Bizarrely enough their first spaceship will be called Granma.