This dystopian space tale was out of date shortly after it was published, but it's still a good story with an important message - space travel is bigger than short-term interests, and politics will always nuke expensive programs. The Apollo moon landings were a freak, needed to put the commies in their place, so to speak.

In the early 21st century, the dying days of the space program are in sight. The possibility of life is discovered on Titan, one of Saturns moons. A new NASA director gets the idea to sneak in a mission to Titan before the space program is dismantled by the incoming president. (I found this one a little hard to swallow - how often is is a presidential race years in the future that certain?)

The scope of the novel is expansive, focusing on world affairs for much of it, and progressing to humanity's future in the universe. I enjoyed it, and am reading Mr. Baxter's novel The Time Ships, picked up on the strength of this book.