Volition

Well, the Chinese have sucessfully launched a man into space and he made it safely back, after spending 21 hours orbiting the earth.

So this makes three countries that can put people in space. Not big deal? Well, I hope it becomes one. Apart from the lack of flying cars, the abysmal state of space exploration is the big disappointment of this century for me. Where are the space stations? Where are the moon bases? We haven't even gotten anyone to Mars yet.

Now that the Chinese are well on the way to becoming the new other superpower, perhaps the United States will be motivated to get their space program back into gear. If there's one thing that seems to get people in the US motivated, it's xenophobia. The potential for China to become a rival for the military and commercial exploitation of space may be the kick in the pants that they need. This is especially important to the US armed forces because of their ever increasing reliance on space-based technology for waging war.

I just hope they don't funnel more of the USD$369 billion they spend annually on defence into missile defence, instead of useful space exploration technology. Ths last thing humanity needs is an excuse for another arms race.