From Best of the Web Today

“Shuttle’s Last Flight Leaves Russia With Space Monopoly”–headline, The Wall Street Journal, July 7

“USSR Wins Space Race as U.S. Shuts Down Shuttle Program”–headline, Onion, July 27

In the end, the U.S. is left to ponder an irony: It won the technological race to develop a space shuttle but lost the war. “You can argue that the Russians were on the right trajectory all along, by flying big, dumb boosters,” said Duke University space historian Alex Roland.