If the space race of the last century was decided on the moon, that of this century could be a few years after its final act. The space is again the great theater where the two greatest economies in the world demonstrate their technological muscle, and China He has been preparing a master function to close your arc of redemption.
A little paint in the face. This story has a clear origin: 1994. That year, China requested to join the International Space Station program with the other partners, But the United States vetoed its entrancearguing that the Asian country was not trustworthy. China developed its own manned space program, but in 2011, the United States Wolf amendment was a second blow, prohibiting NASA from any type of cooperation with Chinese counterparts.
In parallel, China suffered the consequences of a world increasingly dependent on navigation satellites. In 1993 he had a first affront when the United States deliberately turned off GPS satellites on the Chinese ship Yinhe, leaving it drifting for 33 days. In 1996, a new blackout made the GPS guidance of a Chinese missile fail. In 2003, China invested 230 million euros to join the Galilean satellite navigation system of the European Union, but also ended up being expelled from this project.
Of isolated to self -sufficient. Instead, China started a long -term plan to build, piece by piece, everything they had denied. In 1999 he launched the Shenzhou ship 1. In 2003, it became the third country, after the Soviet Union and the United States, to independently send a man to space: Yang Liwei aboard the Shenzhou 5.
In 2007, China undertaked at the same time its lunar career and its own navigation network. The Chang’e 1 probe began to orbit the moon, and the Beidou-1 satellite meant the first stone of an alternative system to the American GPS. Similarly, in 2011 he launched Tiangong-1, the embryo of what would be his future space station. In 2022 he was no longer interested in ISS: China put the Tiangong Space Stationthat since then It is permanently inhabited.
Even in areas such as planetary defense, China is replicating and improving Western missions. After the success of NASA’s dart mission, will launch its own mission to divert an asteroidwith a key improvement: a second ship that will observe the impact in real time and measure the live result.
The first milestones. China’s space exploits have been growing in complexity. In 2020, the Chang’e 5 probe brought samples of the visible face of the moon for the first time in 44 years, and of a geologically younger area than the samples of the Apollo missions, so that They also interested NASAdespite the law that prevents them from collaborating.
It was not until 2024, with the Chang’e-6 mission, which China achieved an impressive unpublished feat: bring to Earth The first samples of the hidden face of the moona tremendous effect in the new space race that now seeks to repeat on Mars, going for the first soil samples of the red planet.
While NASA’s Mars Sample Return mission is in a limbo, China plans to launch its Tianwen-3 probe in 2028 and bring samples of Mars in 2031, foreseeably advanceing NASA. He could do it alone, but in a brilliant geopolitical movement, he has invited agencies around the world to join with their own instruments, which leaves the United States in an awkward position.
Sorpasso in sight. Beyond the robotic missions, the most important milestones at stake are the missions manned to the moon. While the NASA Artemis program accumulates numerous delays and cost overruns, China advances firmly towards its objectives of stepping on the moon and establishing a lunar base.
NASA has already arrived six times to the surface of the moon between 1969 and 1972, but the new lunar race does not go to put a flag, but to control resources. The one who arrives first and establishes a base in the South Lunar Pole It will have a key advantage to select areas with ice water and establish the communication protocols of the cislunar space.
Nervousness in Washington. The United States reaction to China’s spatial advances show that the Sorpasso It is possible. The Wolf amendment has fallen short, and now NASA has hardened its position, prohibiting Chinese citizens Access to all its facilities, programs and even zoom meetings. The agency alleges reasons for “cybersecurity.”
At the same time, NASA’s acting administrator, Sean Duffy, has adopted A belligerent rhetoric against China: “We are in a second space race. We will win the Chinese on the moon.” You can intuit the fear of a defeat, and one of the strategic movements of the United States to avoid it will be to install a nuclear reactor on the moon before China does, to be able to declare an “exclusion zone”, de facto controlling the most valuable areas.
In 30 years, China has gone from being a spatial outcome to an undisputed leader who marks the rhythm in the exploration of the 21st century. The veto that had to stop her became the fuel of her ambition. His space empire is no longer a promise; It is a reality that orbits our heads and perches on other worlds. Revenge, patient and meticulous, is already served.
Image | Xinhua
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