America Losing its Lead in the Space Race

America is losing its lead in the space race as other countries challenge its dominance on the "final frontier", the head of NASA has warned. The more obvious rivals such as Russia and Europe have been joined by countries as diverse as Brazil, Israel and India, which are all launching their own space programs. A recent report on international space competitiveness by Futron, an American technology consultancy, concluded that "systemic and competitive forces threaten US space leadership". America had failed to keep track of how quickly the "globalization" of space was occurring, the study said. Meanwhile, as Asians and Europeans became increasingly enthusiastic about manned space exploration, public interest in the US was "limited", said the study. In 1998, the US launched 121 new satellites but that number had fallen to 53 - about 50 per cent of the total - by 2007.