Cosmonauts

In the Washington Aviation Museum a very log time ago I did at least recognise that the American lunar orbiter took the shape of a Coke can whilst the Soviet equivalent resembled a collection of onion domes. It was perhaps my first revelation as to the cultural elements that unexpectedly manifest themselves within something you would assume to be pretty scientific and factual. Later it would be German Tigers vs Russian T34's, or BMW vs Harley motorcycle engines that would emphasise the same cultural distinctions brought to technological devices.
But a stirring documentary on the Soviet cosmonauts I drifted in to watching the other evening brought home further geo-political differences of an even more worrisome kind, even if they were rather understated.
The Soviet space programme experienced a great many difficulties despite initial success and ended up being a pretty slow burn affair. The American space race was exactly the opposite; whatever spin off technologies that made it in to the American household, or whatever household technologies were employed to turn the stitching of brassieres in to space suits, it was a competition with a finish line, and once that finish line was crossed, the Americans, or rather the American public, got bored and they ended up playing golf on the moon to keep everybody entertained. This grotesque spectacle should should still raise the quizzical eyebrow, as well as throwing in to perspective the aspirations of both Richard Branson and Elon Musk. Space tourism would seem to me a contradiction in terms.
The Soviets ended up with Mia, an actual space station that was under permanent occupation by human lab rats undergoing 'research'. Where this research would lead was unknown but some people somewhere believed it had to be done in our long-term interests. So long-term was the interest (and so short was the cash) that it was even opened up to non-Soviet astronauts and became the 'International Space Station'.
This effort came to a grim end with the collapse of the Soviet Union and the outsourcing of supply rockets to the Ukraine. In the most entertaining part of the documentary Tim Peake managed an admirable demonstration of the British stiff upper lip when describing his own imminent demise as one of these supply modules approached at ninety degree angle to that which it should with disastrous consequences, and this meant pretty much the end of Mia.
Now if all of this doesn't make us aware of the perilous nature of the late capitalist, neoliberal, trajectory I don't know what does.