Daily Archives: July 22, 2003

Losing the Next Space Race

I know I said I was going to talk about TV, but I’ve got a different subject for today.

Unless something drastic happens, we (Americans, I mean) have already lost the next space race. No huge technological leaps have happened. There have been no trips to the moon in years. No human has ever set foot on Mars. The ISS is just sucking up money. The space shuttle is grounded. Like it or not, NASA is not flourishing right now.

Yet, I said there would be a space race; who is supposed to be our competition? Well, before you know it, the Chinese will have sent manned flights into space. While our program is stagnating, theirs is just beginning.

Don’t believe me? You wait: Years from now, it’ll make headlines. With the short attention span the American public has, it’ll die down quickly and no huge changes will be made in NASA. Call me a cynic, but just wait and see.

Since we won’t kick into gear as we did against the Soviets, eventually, the Chinese will surpass our capabilities in space. They will have colonies on the moon, set foot on Mars.

I wish it could be the USA, but I don’t see it happening. I just don’t.