this post was submitted on 18 Feb 2024
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They must have made some huge advances since the last time I checked in on them because they haven't exactly been considered sophisticated in the art of rocketry for a couple centuries now. They first had a person in space in 2003 and they're still using the same Shenzou line of rockets since that time. They've had some controversies about where their boosters are landing and covering people with Hydrazine which is also an outdated fuel type, imo.
Yeah you missed the part where they have a fucking space station and a growing private sector of reusable launch vehicles that are copying SpaceX.
We're impressed by a space station? What is this, 1976?
I'll admit it's an improvement over their situation before the early 80s where 88.7% of people in China were below the poverty line.
Yeah, a space station is actually pretty impressive given that no other country besides the US and Russia have one, and that will be gone by 2030 with no plans for a replacement. If you don't think a Space station is impressive then you're very ignorant. So in a few years China will have the only space station in space. They launch multiple rockets per week while the US just has SpaceX launching at a similar cadence. Go stick your head in the sand if you want, but outside of SpaceX the Chinese have a better space program and just saying "we did it x many years ago" is completely irrelevant to today. All of the tech isn't here anymore. There is no space shuttle. The SLS is a boondoggle that will never fly after a few expensive Artemis missions. ULA is basically bankrupt and trying to get sold. Boeing Space is a disaster. Today is what matters and I believe Chinas space program is in a much better place than ours. Today. It's a result of attitudes like yours that handwave away anything that China does and leads to stagnation and complacency and corruption
The ISS was designed and built in various countries across 4 continents in the 80s and 90s, I would hardly call it only Russia's and the USA's. I honestly respect India's Aerospace more than China's current level of technology. Even the UK, who historically have had no interest in the field, are in the midst of planning 2 massive Space Ports in England and Scotland.
I'm not dismissing the failures of USA Space Program, it's so inefficient to its core that Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos each started their own rocketry firms that blew conventional compartmentalized industry pricing out of the running. I'm just striving for accuracy of Chinese Failures. They're not currently neck and neck with us, at all. When they figure out how to make coal powered rockets, then maybe I'll sweat a little, lol.