This week will be remembered in history as the moment that America’s ambitions in Space ended. It’s an event that marks America’s withdrawal as the greatest global superpower in history; in fact, nothing describes America’s apparent decline quite as starkly as the final landing of the Space Shuttle, Atlantis, a couple of nights ago. Fate rarely contrives such neat endings.
Two years ago, Mary Wakefield argued in these pages that the real Space Age is yet to begin. Maybe, in the meantime, here is how the Spectator magazine marked America’s greatest triumph in Space.
Success story, John Graham, The Spectator, 26th July 1969
Washington
The Americans are simply an amazing people. If the qualities that the British pride themselves on show best under strain, then the qualities of Americans are most clear under the light of success. The last ten days in this country have been a strange time.
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