Comment on That Cold War Space Race? Some think it’s back on! by richotto

The article is interesting but dos’nt say whether the Chinese have developed anything beyond Soviet 70s gear. The USSR was behind technologically nearly all the time after the PR stunt of Sputnik ignited the space race. The chief advantage of the US which it still has I believe is the ability to launch a much greater payload into space if neccessary with the Saturn 5 rocket which underpinned the Apollo missions. After the moon landings there was comparitively little achievable in space race terms within tolerable costs and timeframe. It would be surprising to most onlookers at the time I believe how little has been achieved in space in the 44 years since 1969.
The main benefit space exploration has managed to bring is satilite communication and thats considered low technology. So its hard to see anything down the road thats comparable in any way with Science Fiction. Up to the Space Shuttle initial launches that kind of comparisson was still being considered not unreasonable.