CHENG: China’s space challenge to America

At the dawn of the Space Age, China lagged far behind the United States and the Soviet Union. Beijing didn’t even launch its first satellite until 1970. But China has made remarkable progress. On June 24, three Chinese astronauts successfully docked their Shenzhou spacecraft with the orbiting Tiangong-1 space lab. The mission underscored again China’s interest in manned spaceflight. And the manual docking itself marked a major step toward a greater Chinese presence in space, as docking and extended missions are essential to any space station or lunar mission. More

(Source: Washington Times - Jul 5)