WN: Wired News:
"When the United States beat the Soviet Union in the first race to the moon, it confirmed the view, to many, that capitalism rules and communism sucks. But the state that President Reagan called The Evil Empire learned its lesson and embraced capitalism wholeheartedly, in space at least, while NASA ossified into a monstrous, inefficient bureaucracy that would have done Khrushchev proud.
Strapped for cash after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Russian Space Agency made money by having its cosmonauts shoot a Pepsi commercial on space station Mir. That worked out so well that the agency followed up with promos for Pizza Hut, The Lego Company, Popular Mechanics and Radio Shack on the International Space Station. It made even more money by flying the first tourists into space with the help of Space Adventures. Meanwhile NASA remains resolutely aloof from such crass commercialism.
But these commercial endeavors do more than simply keep RKA in the money. They also give it clear purpose: to keep the customer satisfied. In contrast, it's not exactly clear why NASA is going back to the moon, except that the president told it to.
The second moon race will have a decidedly different outcome than the first. But once again, it looks like capitalism will emerge the winner."
Ah, the irony of it all! Fascinating, really...