The Apollo moon landing cemented the United States as the unquestioned leader
in space travel. When Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong placed the flag on the
moon, the U.S. reached the figurative finish line at the end of a years-long
space race. But fast-forward 60 years, through numerous NASA led missions to
space and the U.S. space program has ended up with budget cuts and no vehicle
to launch astronauts into space. Without the space shuttle, NASA now relies on
Russians to send Americans to space from a launch pad in Kazakhstan. But if
billionaires like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos are to be believed, space is about
to become a big business. As a result, China is pouring money into its
fast-growing private space industry to get a piece of the action, showing its
commitment to the future of space exploration. in three years, China has
gone from representing a 0% of the world's investment in the space and
industry to 3% of the world's investment in the space industry. That may not seem
like a lot but that's enough to put China regularly in among the top
countries investing in space companies.The space race of today isn't just about
proving who has the fastest rocket. It's about business interests, Mars
exploration and ultimately control of Natural Resources, commercial space
travel and more. Back in 2009, SpaceX made history when it became the
first private company to send a commercial satellite into space.
Companies no longer had to employ the help of a government in order to get a
satellite into space. The private sector could now start to
help out with that. Fast forward 10 years and companies like SpaceX and Jeff
Bezos Blue Origin have made impressive strides in their space program and so have
Chinese companies. In 2018, China's one space completed the first suborbital
launch of a rocket and this year they plan to send over ten commercial
satellites into space. That took SpaceX seven years to do. Still China's space
ventures aren't quite to the point of overtaking American giants like SpaceX.
Even the newer rocket that land space is developing, can only lift may barely even
a fifth of the payload that SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket can lift.
But where China excels is its rapid growth in space industry investment for
these companies. The real strength of commercial satellite launch programs is
that it frees up government's to focus on much larger aspirations.
China's CNSA made itself a real contender for the modern space race when
it launched its lunar probe on the far side with the moon in 2018. A first for
any country. This has led many to speculate that China's got its sights on
much bigger projects. But some experts say that the country's space program
isn't done with the moon quite yet. They're gonna put boots on the ground on
the moon soon. That's part of their plan, right. They've rolled that out. They've
announced that publicly. And some see that as a potential step towards a much
further goal. A lot of the international world kind of shrugged off like "oh you
reach the farce of the moon with a robot we did that 50 years ago on the front
side of the moon with human beings." It would be a little more difficult to
shrug off than actually having a sustained presence on the surface of the
Moon with something like a lunar outpost of sorts. That would be as many within
the space industry as well as NASA refer to it a kind of gateway step to reaching
Mars. Mars is the ultimate dream for governments and companies alike. It's the
next frontier of space travel. But China has a long way to go. I just think the U.S.
has too big of a of a lead here and that has a lot to do with SpaceX. I mean if
SpaceX wasn't in the picture, then I think that there would be a much
bigger risk of that happening. But with SpaceX innovating the way that they have
and continuing to innovate at the pace that they are I don't think that
anyone's going to get to Mars before SpaceX.
NASA's private partnerships could help the U.S. beat China to Mars. The ultimate
goal for companies and countries alike expands far beyond exploration for
explorations sake. Whoever holds the keys to space ultimately has access to vast
resources and unknown technological advances. And as researchers and
engineers begin exploring the viability of asteroid mining, space is going to
become even more important to a country's economy and a business's
bottom line. There's also the increase in militarization of space. With President
Trump's announcement of the Space Force in 2018. All of these factors will make
space more competitive in the future and drive a space race that's just getting started.