Which is much better than the precedent since the 1950s, that fusion was always 20 years away.

Yeah, but before that, it was 20 years away for about 50 years, so there is some progress after all!

Seriously though, the article reads like "Remember SPARC? We're still trying to build it." I wish them luck, but if past experience with fusion can be extrapolated, they will run into some unexpected, crippling problems.

Up until 2005/2010 (the start of ITER), it was more like 30+ years away (ex: https://imgur.com/3vYLQmm ). 5 years is a while but 2025 has been the target for CFS for several years now.