Shenzhou 9 Sparks Renewed Debate On Space Race With China

MarkWhittington writes "With the flight of the Shenzhou 9, which includes the first docking between a Chinese spacecraft and a prototype space station module, a renewed debate has arisen over the implications of Chinese space feats. China is planning a large space station by the end of this decade. It has expressed the desire to land people on the moon sometime in the next decade. Scientists, foreign policy experts and journalists debate whether China has supplanted the U.S. as a space power and whether that matters. 'In reality, the implications of China's move could be a much cooler third option: a new space race between the Chinese government and U.S. startups. While China is 50 years behind the U.S. government, they are much more comparable to U.S. companies. It was only a couple of weeks ago that SpaceX made history by becoming the first private company to successfully dock a space module to a station in orbit. This means they are roughly 10-15 years behind the Chinese government, but they could gain fast.'"

Comments

Re:Prediction

[crutchy]

Elon Musk has been talking quite a bit

yeah he does that. unfortunately he doesn't do much else though

Re:It's a space "RACE" because that's what US want

[Taco Cowboy]

The US had plenty of good reasons for barring China from the ISS, the most conspicuous of these being that China would likely not contribute much

If that was true, Italy, Brazil and India (among other not-so-advanced states) would have been barred from the ISS
 

Re:Obligatory Neil DeGrasse Tyson

[drinkypoo]

Replaced by doubts about man-made climate change, [...] This is not about what China is doing, folks.

No, this is about you're a tool.