In space, US sees a rival in China

WASHINGTON: During the Cold War, US eyes were riveted on the Soviet Union’s rockets and satellites. But in recent years, it has been China’s space programs that have most worried US strategists. China, whose space effort is run by the People’s Liberation Army, today launches more rockets into space than any other country -- 39 last year, compared to 31 by the United States, 20 by Russia and eight by Europe.

On Thursday it landed a space rover on the dark side of the Moon -- a first by any country -- and plans to build an orbiting space station in the coming decade. In the decade after that, it hopes to put a Chinese "taikonaut" on the Moon to make the first moonwalk since 1972.

China now spends more on its civil and military space programs than do Russia and Japan. Although opaque, its 2017 budget was estimated at $8.4 billion by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. That’s far less than the $48 billion the United States spends on its military and civilian space programs, says analyst Phil Smith of consulting firm Bryce Space and Technology. But it is more than double Russia’s civilian space budget, which has been slashed to $3 billion. Overcoming a lag of several decades, China’s leaders have very methodically replicated the stages of space development achieved by other great nations: a first satellite in 1970, its first manned space mission in 2003, the first docking of a manned spacecraft to an orbiting module in 2012, and activation of the BeiDou satellite navigation system, China’s answer to GPS. "If they continue on this trajectory, they’re going to quickly eclipse Russia in terms of their space technology capabilities," said Todd Harrison, an expert on military space programs.