The next time humans set foot on the moon, they may well plant a five-starred red flag there. The Chinese space program is developing rapidly, and further progress should come this year when taikonauts, a colloquial term for Chinese astronauts, visit the Tiangong-1 space module.
The president’s chief science adviser John Holdren has said the U.S. would benefit from cooperation with China. The two countries could tackle the problem of space debris and, possibly, lay groundwork for a joint mission to Mars. His thinking fits with the Obama administration’s so-called Asian pivot, a shift in focus from the Middle East to China’s growing influence; the idea is that science and technology cooperation could be a useful lever in negotiations.
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