The senator wanted a promise. A solemn vow. For the last six years—or maybe the last decade or quarter century, depending on how you count it—the United States and China had been locked in a space race, a contest to see which nation could put its people on the moon. Senator Ted Cruz wanted President Donald Trump’s nominee to run NASA, Jared Isaacman, to pledge that the US would not lose.
Cruz brought a little surprise to Isaacman’s confirmation hearing last April. It was a poster of the moon. On one side stood three astronauts and a giant Chinese flag. On the other were two more figures in space suits,