On Oct. 15, China entered an elite class by being only the third nation to launch successfully a man into Earth-orbit.
On the heels of the United State’s Columbia disaster and Russia’s rocky return of the Soyuz space capsule in May, the Chinese pulled off a flawless mission. Although masked in secrecy before launch, the Chinese space program has since exploded with talks of spacewalks and even a space station now on the horizon.
Surprisingly, the event received little news coverage by the media. Our first space endeavors were watched anxiously by the entire world. Only our arrogance would have us believe that all audiences watched on gleefully.
A nation’s scientific achievements demonstrate the technical, organizational and execution skills all rolled into a neat little package. Thus, the ability to successfully travel into space has significant political and diplomatic ramifications.
The success of the Chinese space program could not come at a worse time for the American space program.
In the wake of the Columbia accident, NASA has been plagued with accusations of complacency compounded by misappropriations and hierarchical favoritisms dominating decision-making.
Likewise, the International Space Station faces budget shortages while the United States must step down as its primary supplier.
I remember (or maybe just heard stories of) the previous triumphs of the U.S. space program. One of the biggest Cold War successes was the rebuttal offered by the United States to the Soviet’s space program. Acting on executive orders, we successfully developed the program to land a man on the moon and return him safely to Earth-all within a decade of the project’s inception.
But this bit of nostalgia is over 30 years old and contemporary perspectives of space exploration are wrought with failure. The two most memorable events in the U.S. space program during my lifetime have been the tragic (and avoidable) losses of the Challenger and Columbia.
That is not to say that our space program has not had successes. Skylab, though short-lived, proved a successful endeavor.
Likewise, the development of the shuttle fleet and the first reusable spacecraft in the early 1980’s deserves recognition. The current International Space Station has demonstrated our ability to exploit new technologies while bridging political and cultural differences.
If there was ever a time for another country to take the lead in space exploration, then the opportunity is now. With the lack of clear goals and agendas, the historically dominant entities will have difficulty meeting the challenge China seems ready to pose.
The experts reassure us that China’s space program does not stand to challenge the successes of the almighty West.
Pardon my anxiety, but if these are the same experts that so poorly predicted the outcome of Iraqi conflict (WMDs? Where?) or weren’t sharp enough to identify the shuttle’s safety flaws in time to predict a tragedy, then I will be cautious with my trust.
China’s space program has a momentum that ours has not seen in over 30 years. Just as the United States was able to do the unthinkable and expand the space horizon like never before, China’s astronauts may soon find themselves the legends of tomorrow.
Joshua Welch is a graduate student in industrial engineering. He can be reached at [email protected].