Sure, Leonid Brezhnev's particular flavor of state capitalism and political repression was no pleasure to live under. But consider this, free-market apologists: Those wily Soviets and their evil regulated markets out-innovated us in the space department to claim first-mover status. It wasn't for another fifty years that private capital finally caught up in the form of Elon Musk's SpaceX, on the company's fourth flight. And the rocket didn't even deploy a satellite — much less a satellite with a lovable monkey inside. [Wired]

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