The USA stepped up its space programme yesterday with the test launch and recovery of the Orion capsule designed for a manned journey to Mars and back. The flight was the first time an inhabitable capsule has gone beyond low earth orbit for over 40 years. Reaching 3600 miles and returning to earth.
A journey to Mars and back will take going on for 2 years. The Martian year is almost double the Earth year so the flight can only be done when the alignments are right which only happens a few times a year. This is a long term programme and unless serious rivalry builds it will be 20 years before the flight to Mars.
It’s fitting that the USA leads the space race as most of its population are born of those who took the step beyond the comfort zone to reach out for a place they knew little of. Or knew nothing at all in the earliest visits where the risk of falling off the flat earth was a huge danger.