"'The People's Liberation Army's General Armament Department aims to finish systems for the Tiangong-1 mission this year,' says an official Chinese government statement on the new project. Work on a ground prototype is nearly finished...
The Tiangong vehicle's debut in late 2010, and increase in Chinese manned mission flight rates will coincide with the planned termination of the U.S. space shuttle program and a five year hiatus in American manned space launches" (Spaceflight Now 1).
I think there is only one way to explain what China just did: using xkcd... They should call America Mario land, because we just got 1-up'd (xkcd 2). China is taking America's place as the leader of space, which is a big problem for us, because Americans have assumed that we would always be the leader in space. This is why we have vulnerable space systems which we are depended on.
A Day without Space would be a crippling day as reported by LTG Joseph M. Cosumano, Jr. This report makes it clear how dependent we are on space. “Effective Space control leads to Space superiority which, like air and information superiority, is critical to our success as a military [and economic] force” (US Army 3). We rely on space for global positioning, necessary not only in civilian navigation, but military control and command. Furthermore, we need space to track and provide early warning of incoming ballistic missiles. Space superiority is just as critical as air superiority.
Thus, the military does not want to loss space superiority, not only for their needs, but to protect civilian space-assets as well. I predict that the US Army will respond with a space laboratory of their own. But, China wants to gain space superiority, so they will build something bigger than American space systems. This new space race will provide the motivation to build the infrastructure to support a space-based economy as each nation 1-ups each other. This could even push us to establish a moon base to beat China in this race.
Do you think this is provide motivation to the US to develop space?
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(1): China readies military space station – launch coincides with shuttle phaseout. 2 Mar. 2009. Spaceflight Now. 7 Mar. 2009 <http://www.spaceflightnow.com/news/n0903/02chinastation/>.
(2): Mario. Xkcd. 7 Mar. 2009 <http://xkcd.com/151/>
(3): A Day Without Space: Ensuring It Doesn't Happen. US Army. 7 Mar. 2009 <http://www.armyspace.army.mil/SpaceJournal/Article.asp?AID=15>
