Space 25

Not so long ago space was pristine. Even in the two decades following the orbiting of Sputnik, the two superpowers — the United States and the Soviet Union — were still the only truly significant actors there. And though they had previously launched sonne innpressive unnnanned satellites, their first astronauts were little nnore than tourists in space. Even the nnagnificent moon landing was no more a precursor of human colonization of a new “continent” than was the first landfall by the Vikings in North America. And until recently most discoveries about the far universe were being made from earth-based telescopes.