China's new Long March-8 rocket makes first flight

Re:China's new Long March-8 rocket makes first flight by someperson on Wednesday December 23, 2020 @06:47PM (#25523635)

I don't see China's space program as developing particularly rapidly.

China did a manned mission to low-earth orbit in 2003. 17 years later China hasn't done much on the manned exploration front. Long March 9 isn't expected to even be ready for a manned Lunar mission until the 2030s.

America launched Alan Shepard in 1961 and 8 years later Neil Armstrong walked on the moon.

That said, I think there's no reason why China needs to struggle to make advances in space because copying the innovation of other places works very well.

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Re:China's new Long March-8 rocket makes first flight by dirtyid on Wednesday December 23, 2020 @07:04PM (#25523750)

Priorities are simply different right now. Focus is mostly catching up on space infrastructure, indigenous capabilities for civil / military use i.e. actual purpose of space programs. The gap there use to be much larger. Innovative / exploratory missions for nationalism is a sideshow.

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