"Pat Flannery" wrote in message
dakotatelephone...
Those are exactly my thoughts on the matter; rather than being some sort
of imminent threat to the US in space, the Chinese have a manned space
effort that is so minimal in its aims and so slow moving in its
accomplishments that it barely exists.
Without getting a larger booster into service they are pretty much stymied
in what they can do, and to get funding for that larger booster it will
have to be shown that it has real commercial capabilities for satellite
launching, an area in which it will run into a lot of international
competition.

Agreed. And even if they were aggressively developing an HLV, a bigger
space station, and even lunar landing plans, they'd still be duplicating
feats that the US and Soviets accomplished in the 1960's and 1970's. In
other words, they'd still be 30+ years behind.

That's why I LOL when someone in the US uses the Chinese as a reason that
the US has to maintain the lead in space or "they're going to overtake us".
Yea, right!

Jeff
--
"Take heart amid the deepening gloom
that your dog is finally getting enough cheese" - Deteriorata - National
Lampoon