US Taking Its Rivalry With China to Outer Space |
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The race for space, claim some American congressmen, is heating up again with an intensity not seen since the Cold War. On one side is of course the United States, then as now the world's preeminent space power. But this time it's facing off against China - and, these congressmen claim, unless the government decides to put more cash into NASA, this is a race the States might just lose.These congressmen bewail the fact that NASA is understaffed compared to its Chinese counterpart (the Chinese space program employs around 200,000 workers compared to NASA's 20,000) and has been experiencing budgetary problems that've paralyzed the American space program more than once, the big-ticket next-space-shuttle program notwithstanding.
While statements like these sound suspiciously similar to Cold War-era propaganda, it's not just rhetoric, or so NASA says. Just recently, NASA Administrator Mike Griffin told lawmakers at a Capitol Hill hearing that China's Shenzhou craft can support crew on a round-trip mission to the moon, although their dated Long March rockets couldn't get them there yet. However, the US has neither rockets nor craft that can make it to the moon and won't have its lunar Crew Exploration Vehicle ready until 2013 or 2014, and a new heavy-throw-weight rocket won't be ready until even later. Tellingly, NASA says both craft and rocket will only be ready in 2018 - a full year after China's. In addition it was recently disclosed that China's new space facility has state-of-the-art technology and buildings, while many of NASA's buildings are quite dated.
We believe that as things stand at present, the US is still the nation to beat when it comes to the purported space race. It holds the technological edge, at least for now (although that is most probably diminishing as we speak), and will most probably continue to do so in the near future if it continues to make use of Russian technology.
Which brings us to our second point. The US (and Russia as well) have had decades of good solid experience in space. Not to disparage the Chinese effort, but that's one thing money definitely can't buy.
That said there's absolutely no room for complacency. Russian tech and know-how has been for sale, sometimes to the lowest bidder, for years now, ever since the collapse of the Soviet Union, and the Chinese have been some of Russia's best customers. Aside from that, to return to a point made at the start of this entry, although everyone will ultimately benefit from this renewed push into space, this is something that's always been and always will be done out of patriotic sentiment - always one heck of a motivator.
We're not too bothered by any of this though - if this is what it takes to get NASA and the US government out of their seats, we're all for it! We feel certain the space scene will be white-hot for years to come.
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