Many of the Asian nations find themselves spiraling into a new space race. With the United States and Russia at a peaceful juncture, cooperating in technological endeavors and only seeking to maintain their positions, the door has opened for developing nations to assert their dominance.  India, South Korea, Japan and China have all launched successful scientific and exploratory missions to places like low-earth-orbit (LEO), Mars and the moon in the last several years with many plans to continue and push for manned missions, even beyond what the U.S. has accomplished.
   Peace overshadows the space race currently, but the tensions of an arms race underlie all of these accomplishments, as each technical accomplishment serves to prove the technological capabilities of these new international powers. This new space race could become the next Cold War if left unchecked, so we should notice these tensions and developments are often more than scientific. This race involves just as much as it physically encompasses the whole world, so we cannot afford to ignore it.
   Over the course of the Cold War, the U.S. and the USSR were engaged in a so-called space race.  The USSR was winning handily, as they were the first to have an orbiting satellite and a man in space, among many other achievements surpassing the U.S.’s capabilities.  It was not until the joint efforts of several federal agencies and the backing of President John F. Kennedy and the American people that the second leg of that space race was won with the successful string of the Apollo-manned moon landings.  According to History.com, the American-Soviet space race finally ended with a successful dock of two vessels.
   “In 1975, the joint Apollo-Soyuz mission sent three U.S. astronauts into space aboard an Apollo spacecraft that docked in orbit with a Soviet-made Soyuz vehicle. When the commanders of the two crafts officially greeted each other, their (handshake in space) served to symbolize the gradual improvement of U.S.-Soviet relations in the late Cold War-era,” the website said.
   Extremetech.com reports on the most recent mission in this new space race, undertaken by the Chinese, who put a roving robot called Jade Rabbit or “Yutu” on the Moon.  The mission succeeded, as it was the first soft landing on the moon in 37 years, and China is only the third nation to successfully do so, but Sebastian Anthony of extremetech.com said the mission is also on the verge of catastrophe.  
   “Yutu has a primary three-month mission. Because the rover is solar powered, it can only drive during the lunar day — during the 14-Earth-day lunar nights, it simply sits there, sleeping,” Anthony said.
    According to CNN, the rover encountered technical difficulties last week in achieving the hibernation necessary to survive the two-week-long lunar night. Consequently, the rover may have its mission cut in half, dying an early death on the dark side of the moon.
   Even with this premature failure, the Chinese will not lose heart.  The mission was primarily a success, and according to Graham Templeton of extremetech.com, China is likely to use this hurdle as a stepping stone to its eventual dominance in the modern space race.
    “Make no mistake: all of this is a training exercise for the real event. China has set its sights on Mars, and, more than any other nation, views the distinction of putting the first human being on an alien planet as a consuming national goal,” Templeton said in his article. “The Chinese people seem to be mostly in favor of that goal, as well; like the Americans of decades past, they are eager to show the world their capabilities, and the tantalizing idea of being the world’s top dog is still new enough to be exciting.”
   Should we worry?  Maybe not yet, but this space race has the potential to become militarized. Previously, inter-continental ballistic missiles, weaponized spy-satellites and plans for missile defense systems were the name of the game in the space race.  This time, with these rising Asian nations all in such close proximity and still cooling off the tensions from previous wars, we should seek to promote diplomatic solutions to any problems that may arise.  
    One way of easing tensions may be to promote cooperation in space race endeavors rather than letting them snowball into a catastrophe.  U.S. and Russia, though they disagree on many things, rely on each other to accomplish even the easiest tasks in space. Hopefully, the rising powers can learn from our mistakes and use our example to prevent what could turn into a harmful cold war or worse.