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Opinion | Artemis, Tiangong successes in US-China space race leave Russia eating cosmic dust
- The US and China have revived the space race as Nasa has started its return to the moon and China’s Tiangong space station is complete and operational
- Russia, meanwhile, has seen its role diminished and could fall further out of favour as public and private options surpass Russian rockets
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Space exploration, once a spirited rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union, has now become a contest between the US and China. Recent weeks have seen advances in the space programmes of both countries, and these advances have left Russia in the cosmic dust.
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A powerful new US rocket propelled an uncrewed module to the moon and beyond while the International Space Station, primarily funded and run by the US, continues to do good science. Meanwhile, China’s newly expanded Tiangong space station recently refreshed its crew with a visit from Shenzhou 15.
On November 16, the US-designed Space Launch System (SLS) thrust an uncrewed Orion capsule on a trajectory for the moon in its inaugural test flight as part of the Artemis programme. The SLS was supposed to be an answer to Russia’s Proton rockets and the legendary Saturn rocket.
It has not been an instant success, though. The SLS, plagued by cost overruns and technical delays, has had trouble getting off the ground, with four launches scrubbed earlier this year.
Nearly four months after the first attempt, the Orion module finally broke free of Earth’s gravity for its first voyage around the moon. This is a significant accomplishment and comes as a great relief to Nasa, which has already invested billions in the Artemis programme.
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The SLS, which is projected to cost about US$4 billion per launch, relies on dated space shuttle-era technology. Unlike the shuttle, it disposes of each rocket after one launch.
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