America's Pivotal Next Decade in Space

The British built an empire and dominated the world because England controlled the seas. The winner of the current race will secure economic and military dominance for the next 100 years or more.

I am republishing this vital essay from former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, originally published in April 2018, because of what’s at stake in this election. When Newt wrote — presciently, about the legal, economic, and military consequences of this Second Space Age — few thought much of space at all. Today Elon Musk daily makes us aware of the “emanations from the penumbra” of what’s possible.

But only the penumbra. Just a bit of it. The fullness is beyond most people’s imaginations.

Due to breakthroughs since Newt wrote, but which he (and I) predicted, America stands on the edge of an era like that which Columbus launched 500 years ago. Spain dominated the first half of that era, Britain and its colonial progeny the second. Whoever dominates the new era at first could very likely dominate civilization, and all of humanity, for centuries.

And that’s what’s at stake in this election, in which one party seeks to fine and jail Musk for his political views, and if you believe key Democrats’…