MOSCOW -- Of all the arms races humankind has been involved in, the one in space has been the most bizarre. If a person is interested in a case study of unintended consequences, one could hardly find a better subject. Scientific curiosity, imperial dreams, down-to-earth geopolitics, interests of commerce and personal vanity -- to name just a few driving forces of the exploration of space in the 20th century -- have created an amazing topsy-turvy world that only gets crazier.
Sold to the public in the 1950s as a great scientific enterprise, at its initial stage the space odyssey actually meant something very different: an arms race and propaganda. The first space rockets were nothing but modified intercontinental ballistic missiles, and the message of each launch had little to do with the noble spirit of exploration -- and a lot to do with national egos.
Throughout the Cold War, the Soviet Union and the United States used outer space the way advertisers use walls -- namely, as a place where one can put untruthful ads. Each nation trumpeted its own successes and downplayed the achievements of the other. Each insisted that its products -- spaceships, robots, labs -- were the best.