American Enterprise Will Beat China in Outer Space

"China is best placed to win a space race, given its well-coordinated, disciplined, technocratic system, able to set and maintain long-term goals," gloomily predicted a recent Washington Post editorial. Yet current Chinese practice and American history show that precisely America's ability to harness private enterprise for national interests will be the decisive element that will enable the United States to dominate space. China's January 2 historic first of landing a rover on the Moon's dark side occasioned the editorial, which noted that "China aims to be the leading space power by 2045." Indeed, others have observed that China "today launches more rockets into space than any other country—39 last year, compared to 31 by the United States, 20 by Russia and eight by Europe." Nonetheless, China only spent in 2017 an estimated $8.4 billion on space programs, far less than America's $48 billion.