Submission + - Has a 'Second Space Race' Begun?
eldavojohn writes: "I was stumbling around on Wikipedia and came across an interesting entry entitled "The Second Space Race" (referring to the race between countries, not private enterprise). I've also have been noticing more and more recent news and articles using the phrase. But also in the news are plans for some countries to band together for parts of or all of their near future plans. Are we truly on the cusp of another space race between countries? If so, why was there such a large gap between the first space race and this one? Has the idea to privatize space exploration already failed? If this is a space race, what are the winning conditions? Colonizing the moon? Manned Mars expedition? Is this a sign that countries today are still as divided as the US and USSR were during the first race or is this just a healthy competition like the Olympics?"
