Today's competition in space: keen, not mean.

• Author: Safire, William
• Position: Perspectives - Brief Article

More than curiosity or altruism or even profit, what drives discovery is the spirit of competition. In the 20th century, stung by the triumph of the Soviet Union putting Sputnik into orbit, President Kennedy said that America had "tossed its cap over the wall of space" to be first to land a man on the moon. We won that competition with Communism in space. Now we are stunned by our new successes. But a curious change has taken place in the nature of that drive: the desire to be first is there, but the fear of being beaten is less. When Britain's lander, the Beagle 2, failed to communicate a "Merry Christmas" recently, the reaction here was not "Nyah...