A Space Race Renewed?

In a few short hours from the time I'm writing this blog, China will launch Shenzhou-7, their third manned space mission which will also be their first attempt at extravehicular activity outside the spacecraft in orbit. Now while this may seem like a fairly mundane thing given that we have already walked on the moon and are in the process of building the International Space Station, China is making fairly rapid progress in their attempts to join Russia and the United States as one of the only spacefaring nations in the world. And looking on how they've been progressing I can't help but feel that perhaps this will finally be the kick needed to renew the fervor and interest in the space program that has waned in recent years.

Sure the situation is a bit different from when the US and Russia were in competition to reach the moon yet there are certain similarities that could very well lead to a renewal of the space race that dominated the nation back in the 1950's, 60's and 70's. Back then Russia (or the Soviet Union as it was known) was running a winning race against us in the conquest of space and fears of living under communist controlled satellites that would rain down nuclear weapons with impunity were threats that people took very seriously. For a long time there were fears that the Russians would reach the moon first and end up conquering it and would again take control of space and hold it like territory preventing anyone other than their own people from taking control. Now space is a vast and wonderous place and in the grand scheme of things I think mankind is just an insignificant speck but still, our little corner is always a point of contention among the various people of the world.

But once we landed men on the moon and the communist regime of Russia fell, it seemed that there was very little reason to keep on exploring space. Falling budgetary allocations and an air of normalcy in all things space-related meant that many plans for the space program fell by the wayside and it was up to NASA to do what they could with the limited budgets and funding they received. Not to say that they haven't made significant strides forward but it just seems odd to me that the only time the general public seems to care about what NASA has been up to is in the face of disasters such as the Challenger accident and the break-up of the Columbia. Shortly after those events, NASA was called to task and made to be held accountable. Nevermind that they were pushing the people and spacecraft to the limits to stay within allocated funds, it should have been more than enough seeing as how it's budget is millions of dollars.

Still, once we, the general public, stop watching space launches like spectators at a NASCAR event, waiting for the big crash or significant incident that would almost 'justify' the time taken to watch the event, and realize that there is true merit to exploring space then perhaps there will be renewed interest. And it seems that the fledgeling Chinese space program is certainly the way to help bring that about. China launched their first manned mission in 2003, and two years later launched their next mission which was a two man mission. Their third which is set to launch today will include three taikonauts (their word for astronauts) and will mark the first spacewalk by the Chinese. To put this in contrast, America launched their solo astronauts in the Mercury Program throughout the early sixties, then moved to the two man missions of Gemini in the mid to late sixties. These Gemini missions were when our astronauts were walking in space. Finally towards the tail end of the sixties and early seventies is when NASA launched their three man missions of Apollo and finally sent men to the moon.

They met the goal set by President Kennedy and landed a man on the moon and returned him safely home before the completion of the 1960's. China has set it's sights on the moon as well and if the past five years is any indication, it's quite possible that they could land on the moon a lot sooner than their 2020 deadline. Indeed they plan on starting construction on a rival space station in 2010 with a completion date of 2015. Perhaps it is a pipedream and perhaps it isn't but what remains is the fact that in a far shorter time, the Chinese are making significant strides towards catching up to the United States and Russia in terms of space capabilities. Sure one can argue that they have a tremendous leg up considering that all the hard work of research and trial and error has been done by the Americans and Russians but still, they are taking that knowledge and applying it. Why can't we do the same thing? Maybe the fear of living on a planet with the words "Made in China" plastered on the surface of the moon will be enough to spur our desires to return to space.