Senator Ted Cruz wanted President Donald Trump’s nominee to run NASA, Jared Isaacman, to pledge that the US would not lose. On the other were two more figures in space suits, with the tiniest Stars and Stripes planted in the lunar soil. In December, Trump capped off the year with an executive order pushing Americans to get back to the moon by 2028. “We positioned it as a race without planning to win.”The original space program was the ultimate symbol of America at its screaming-eagle apex. Space races have helped spur the development of everything from the integrated circuit to the solar panel to 5G.