When President Bush announced plans to return astronauts to the moon, build a lunar base, and eventually journey to Mars, one justification tossed around by space advocates was that the United States had to get back into the manned-mission game because China was going full speed ahead with its ambitious plans to put Chinese astronauts, or "taikonauts," on the moon within the next few years. These geopolitical concerns reminded me of that great scene in The Right Stuff in which LBJ declares that, "I for one do not intend to go to sleep by the light of a Communist moon!" But it looks likes this 21st-century space race has been put on hold. The main architect of China's space program for over a decade said yesterday that while the nation is still planning to build a permanent space station by the year 2020, financial considerations have forced it to drop plans to send a team to the moon.

# posted by James M. Pethokoukis at 5:00 PM EST
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