Fifty years after Apollo, space is about to transform our life on Earth beyond recognition | Will Hutton

An almost unbelievable future is at hand, and Britain is well placed to lay claim to a stake in it

The Apollo 11 space mission captured our imaginations in 1969. And it was achingly evocative to hear the recordings of Michael Collins, who died last week, talk about how looking at Earth from space rammed home just how precious our planet is.

Last week also marked three other milestones for space. A record $8.7bn has been raised by venture capitalists in the last year to support companies in commercial opportunities from space; France's Eutelsat joined the UK as a shareholder in the satellite communications company OneWeb; and China launched the first part of its own space station to host three taikonauts". We are moving beyond the wonder of watching Collins's colleagues, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, walk on the moon to something transformational.