A summary article on the NASA explorer Galileo, Magnifico! is a perfect example of why The Economist is the most insightful, wise, witty and acerbic publication in the English language.

After a shaky start, the craft has been one of NASA’s most successful enterprises, and an example of what America’s space agency does best—pushing back the frontiers of understanding, both literally and metaphorically, rather than keeping underemployed astronauts in low Earth orbit, and occasionally killing them.

Oh, and the sub-headings in the article are all lines from “Bohemian Rhapsody.”