China's space station will pay political dividend

Subject

China's human spaceflight programme.

Significance

China’s human spaceflight programme has advanced steadily, with seemingly unwavering political support. It is now ready to begin a new phase: construction of a permanent crewed space station.

Impacts

• Institutions in other countries will benefit from opportunities to use China’s space station.
• Beijing’s consistent political commitment to human spaceflight may make other governments see it as a more reliable partner than Washington.
• China’s space station may compete with US private space stations for business from non-US clients.
• China has no public timeline for a human moon landing, but is putting the necessary elements in place.
• A Chinese crewed moon programme would likely be designed to be sustainable, unlike the one-off Apollo mission.