I don’t really think this means much with regards to any competition between China and the US in space, but it’s an interesting historical event nonetheless: China’s first woman in space arrives home
This is amusing:
China’s space programme is several decades behind that of the US and Russia – which launched manned space stations in 1973 and 1971, respectively – but Beijing’s determination to boost its programme comes as the US is cutting back its investments in space. The US retired its space shuttle fleet last year.
China, by contrast, has invested about $6bn in space programmes since 1992 to catch up with its counterparts, raising eyebrows in military circles in Washington.
So, they’ve spent in the past twenty years about what NASA spends on human spaceflight in a year or so. It would seem they’re getting more for their money.
And note that FT appears to suffer from the premise that the only space program is a government space program – I guess after reading that the US (i.e.: NASA) is cutting space investment and has retired its spacecraft fleet we are supposed to infer that the US is retreating from manned space. Umm…no, not so much.
