Nasa has awarded the contract to build the next generation of human-manned space rocket - called, rather nicely, Orion - to a consortium headed by Lockheed Martin. This announcement was surprising for a number of reasons, but one of the most unexpected aspects was that it happened at all. The Bush administration has been so lavish with its rhetoric and promises of funding and so scanty with its delivery - in relation to the reconstructions of Afghanistan, Iraq and New Orleans, and Aids, for example - that it takes one off guard to see a pledge leading to some cash action. (Note that this promise dates back to the first Bush, who pledged to send a man to Mars as far back as 1989. Maybe this is another one of those Bush family Oedipal dramas.) No doubt it helps that this is a military-industrial boondoggle, Lockheed Martin's contract being worth an initial $3.9 billion.

LRB 21 September 2006 | PDF Download