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China Launching First Space Station Module In September

Posted by Unknown on from the communist-space-zombies-attack dept.

arisvega writes "The Chinese Space Station's first module has been moved to its final testing location, and will soon be launched into orbit. Two manned missions are scheduled to follow after an unmanned mission checks out. The best part? A movie about China in space is already premiering."

3 of 102 comments (clear)

  1. Competition is good. by JoshuaZ · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It is an unfortunate fact that in the current climate it is very hard to get people in the US interested in space when there's no big looming Soviet threat. This will be good for space in that it will help push people in the US to be more competitive, both because of our general competitive culture and because of the general, residual anti-communist attitudes (and yes, I know that the Chinese aren't really community at this point, but most Americans don't understand that.) So this will help encourage the US to be a bit more serious about space stuff. This is also good because competition is in general better. China might succeed at some things that the US and the various countries involved in the ISS have not done as well. Having different groups trying to tackle the same problems will often lead to different methods and technologies being applied, which in the long run benefits everyone. And of course, a space race is a much better form of competition than a lot of the alternatives like warfare.

  2. Who says the U.S. can't afford a space program? by PinchDuck · · Score: 4, Insightful

    All the stuff we buy from China proves we have more than enough money to finance one. Theirs.

    1. Re:Who says the U.S. can't afford a space program? by michaelmalak · · Score: 4, Insightful

      All the stuff we buy from China proves we have more than enough money to finance one. Theirs.

      Two points.

      1. The U.S. chooses to finance wars instead of space.
      2. The space shuttle, while "cool" and inspiring to the public, demonstrated that government involvement in space exploration has moved beyond helping -- especially in terms of corralling financial resources -- and into hindering. The political compromises in the space shuttle design ended up with a $1.5b/launch cost and a crew cabin mounted laterally to the fuel instead of on top of it, directly causing two fatal catastrophes. It's not just a soundbite -- it's time for the private sector to take over.