In 1957, a 2’ wide aluminium globe made it into orbit around Earth. It was called Sputnik and I remember it well, not because I was interested in Space as a toddler, but because my brother called his guinea-pig Sputnik. Sputnik was launched by the Soviet Union. Four years later, Yuri Gagarin became the first human being to venture into Space. And, oh dear, he was Russian, beating the USA to it. But not to worry. On July 20th, 1969, Neil Armstrong bounced onto a totally barren satellite of dust and rock – the one we call Moon, and planted a great big USA flag.

It was a Space race between rival nations, the only entities that could afford to throw sufficient money at the goal of getting off the one planet in the Solar System perfectly suited to supporting life. The driving force in the Space race was, of…