FOR people of all religious beliefs and none, images of our friendly, blue planet, captured from space, are an inspiring sight, and a reminder of humanity's common interest in the planet's welfare, regardless of political or religious loyalties. However scratchy their relations become on Earth, Americans and Russians remain yoked together in space, and this will remain the case as long as the International Space Station keeps spinning round the earth. On present plans, it seems that the orbiting laboratory will come crashing down in the mid-2020s; until then, Americans will be dependent on Russian transport to reach the station.
But collaboration does not preclude a degree of rivalry, and rather unexpectedly, displays of religous devotion have become a field of competition among cosmonauts, with Russians tending to outdo the Americans.
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