Years ago I read a short science fiction story that took place on a space station. I’m sorry I don’t remember the name of the story or the author. The story stuck with me though. The gist of it is that a United States of America ambassador and a Russian ambassador are having a discussion, in the cafeteria of the space station. The discussion centers around which of their countries will launch their Mars rocket first and thus get to Mars first. At the same time a Chinese ambassador is also in the cafeteria. In the middle of the discussion, there is an announcement over the station intercom, that China had launched their rocket to Mars.
This story came to mind today as I read an article on MSNBC.com about how close China is to launching their own space lab type of facility. The analyst that are interviewed indicate this is just a test facility that won’t be the real thing. They will be doing remote docking tests and will only be sending 3 ships to it. But 2 of those ships will be manned flights.
There is also the conjecture that China isn’t likely to have a fully operational facility until after the current International Space Station has reached it’s life expectancy.
Interestingly enough just read a headline that Russia no longer considers manned space flight a priority.
Hmmm…..
Sometimes life sets about to imitate art.