China’s been making slow but very methodical progress – and the latest stuff is very impressive as far as capabilities and reliability goes.

On the subject, I thought a column yesterday from Newsday by Pinkerton was very insightful:

But there are other things a country can do with a rocket – things perhaps even more consequential in the long run. China has said it wishes to build an inhabited base on the moon by 2010, but some Chinese go much further: “Increasing population and decreasing resources on the Earth,” argues the Xinhua news service, “have made it necessary to seek new living space and resources in outer space.”

If the Chinese are serious about exploring what they call the “fourth frontier,” then the human race could be in for an epochal shift in power relationships. In the Middle Ages, China was the leading sea-going nation in the world, sending ships as far away as India and Africa. But then, in the mid-15th century, China canceled its expeditions; the emperor feared foreign influences. So we can only imagine what the world would look like today if the Chinese had voyaged to the new lands of Australia and the Americas, planting their flag ahead of the Spanish, Portuguese and English.

So now, maybe, the Chinese, having made the colossal blunder of the second millennium by forgoing national expansion, are determined to make up for that mistake in the third millennium, by occupying the high frontier of the heavens.

By the way, the hearings were held yesterday:

Witnesses suggest change of course for NASA human space flight programs

Michael Griffin and Wesley Huntress suggested raising NASA’s budget to $20 billion/year, to pursue a “far more abitious” space program. Matthew Koss and Alex Roland seem to have been their to argue against human spaceflight…