NASA has unveiled the crew for its Artemis Moon mission, a historic step in humanity’s return to lunar exploration. But as the four astronauts prepare for their journey, a familiar cry echoes from this sceptred isle: where are the British? Our own Astronauts, trained for years, are left earthbound while American and Canadian names fill the roster.
It is a rank failure of political will and national ambition, a sign that Britain has ceded its place in the stars. We who once ruled the waves now beg for scraps at the table of spacefaring powers. This is the slow, grubby decline of a nation that has lost its nerve.
The Victorians would be aghast. We must demand more than a seat; we must demand a role in the grand adventure or be consigned to irrelevance in the next great era of exploration.
