Europe and Nasa are right to shoot for the stars

What do Nasa’s plans to launch one of the world’s most powerful rockets next Monday have in common with Europe’s ambitions to build cutting-edge semiconductor factories?

At the very least, both are moonshots — one literally and the other metaphorically. Other similarities struck me as I listened to a Boeing executive last week discuss the challenges of building the first rocket system designed to bring humans back to the Moon after a 50-year absence...