The use of propaganda and other forms of strategic influence have long been an important component to a nation’s wider geopolitical, security, economic and military objectives. Innumerable examples of strategic messaging for geopolitical purposes – from World War II, to the Cold War, to the present day – abound. Notably here, the space race of the mid-20th century between the U.S. and the Soviet Union was a messaging battle as much as it was a technological or scientific contest. The message of the space race – sometimes explicitly stated, but always understood by the powers at the time – was...