NASA chief suggests SpaceX may be booted from moon mission

The space race was not a scientific endeavor either. It was driven by a political need.

It was to prove that your economic system could muster the correct machinery to get to the moon. Once we got to the moon, nothing significantly changed scientifically, but politically it was a bombshell.

The act of getting the moon now is, once again, not a scientific endeavor. It is once again a holistic test of whether the country still can do it.

And from the looks at it, maybe not. America is not all aligned like we were during the Cold War. Then again, the stakes during the Cold War seems higher.

Just to take your point further, imagine if China establishes a base on the moon while the US is unable to do so. How is that (world wide) discussion going to look like?

:Once we got to the moon, nothing significantly changed scientifically, but politically it was a bombshell.

A lot of commercial tech was spun off from Apollo, and generated a bit of GDP a for a good while.

It really was a race - you can find the original space fligh plans before the race started and they look much more sane and sustainable.

Incremental progress via building up infrastructure, including space station in Earth and Moon orbit, paving way to a lunar surface base. Also ways to make this affordable were explored, including reusable first stages, etc.

Then all focus switch to racing the Soviets and and anything that did not contribute flags and footprints on the lunar surface ASAP was skipped, opting for the fastest possible solution at all costs.

So no wonder that after the race was won, it was hard to do a meaningful followup with the architecture chosen.

One might even argue we would be further along space infra wise if the race did not happen or involved other objectives (possibly even including in space military buildup by both sides).

Americans would be paranoid and xenophobic, but Americans are always paranoid and xenophobic, especially where China is concerned.

But this isn't the 1960s and the US has burned through its goodwill and ruined its credibility. I think the rest of the world would rather have a Chinese base on the moon than an American one.

As an American, is this really a true statement (“I think the rest of the world would rather have a Chinese base on the moon than an American one.”). I can no longer tell what our global reputation is.

People are paranoid and xenophobic, but People are always paranoid and xenophobic, especially where <their historic foe> is concerned.

Yes, you've removed the context of my comment and restated it in general terms. I don't know what the point was, though, given that the context of this discussion is specifically American politics and culture, but good on you.

Now try again, except imagine everyone is a horse.

I can only speak for my small sphere of awareness: it’s very poor. The above sentiment is apt. There’s been a big change in attitude around me over the past few years. “Wait, what again makes China worse than America? What makes it the enemy? Why aren’t we working with them more?”

It would be less depressing to think about if the questioning was due to a sudden improvement in China (human rights, government, environment etc) rather than due to a sudden decline in the USA.

> I can only speak for my small sphere of awareness: it’s very poor.

Ditto. I’m in New Zealand.

>I don't know what the point was, though, given that the context of this discussion is specifically American politics and culture, but good on you.

the point is to exemplify how over-generalized and stupid it is to mention the universal human feelings of xenophobia and paranoia that occur when people witness an adversary during a war-action, land expansion, or anything near those concepts as if it was somehow a uniquely American/Chinese phenomena.

But -- the question asked was 'what will the world-wide discussion look like', not 'How will the Americans respond and feel?'

So, with that in mind, how about an answer to the question asked?

My personal opinion is that there will be a frenzy to remove the groups in power at the moment without much thought of who will fill the vacuum, and then about 40 years of bellyaching from the globe after the cards fall where they may.

I think it's becoming increasingly true for many people - as a Canadian, I've often seen such sentiments expressed ever since the tariffs and Trump's annexation threats. I've also seen a lot of support for a general economic rapprochement with China, at the expense of our relationship with the US (which seems crazy and shortsighted to me). Even for those who won't go that far, I think there's a general feeling that our formally positive relationship with America is tarnished, and can longer be taken for granted in the future.

And the USSR decidedly pwned America at every space medal but one. After America won one medal, we decided that was the one that actually counted, we forgot all that happened previously, because the USSR won them, and we stopped doing any more, lest the USSR win them.

If the point was to prove which economic system is better, the outcome was clear: totalitarian dictatorship with a solid education system far outcompetes capitalism with strong government intervention. In fact it seems that the more there's a guy at the top forcing everyone to work towards an achievable goal, the more likely the goal is to be achieved. There are other reasons to dislike totalitarian dictatorships, of course.

TL;DR Depends on who you ask, but yes.

i had a conversation with a colleague today - we both said that we'd feel more comfortable to visit China over the US, and for his next vacation where he would have to fly via the US he's now considering to take a different flight-path which avoids the US.

as someone from europe one of my dreams as a kid was to visit the great United States. 20 years later this has drastically changed, still never been to the US, but would now rather visit other places.

people are trying to migrate away from US tech to other alternatives.

just last weekend i was joking with the person i watch Formula1 with - the last race was in the US. anyways, we joked that we used to laugh at races and events being held in Azerbaijan, just because it seemed weird to hold western sports events in dictatorships, similar to the football world cup in Qatar. now a world cup and F1 race in the US feels at least as bad as the other options.

but that's my POV. another friend still wants to visit the US for a third time and wants me to go with him and someone else i now even recently got married in the US.

but for me and the people around me - yes, the status of the US has taken a hard nose-dive, especially in the last 1-2 years.

also doesn't help to grow up and learn about the US history, by which i mean the overthrowing of foreign governments, global NSA scandals, needless wars for oil, trade wars etc. etc. etc.

no ill will against the average american citizen, but writing this comment made me a bit angry again. your country's government and some parts of the population cause so much pain on a global scale, but y'all seem too isolated and privileged to realize that. add to this that not even US citizens seem to benefit from this, i mean even y'all get swindled.

you know, i still feel like visiting the US. i want to meet the people and get to know the culture which influences my life in a big way. it just feels wrong, almost like visiting Germany in the early 1930s or late 1920s as a tourist. hope y'all calm down sometime, you'll maybe catch me on Route66, in one of the big cities or wherever.

that's kind of the essence of my rant i think. i could list soooooo many places in the US i'd like to see. but right now and since a couple of years, i'd rather not. the world is big, nice places everywhere. y'all have some great marketing, that's for sure.

Personally I don't currently like neither China nor America and I would refuse to visit either if my work asked me to go. Both have pretty authoritarian governments right now and I refuse to submit to that.

They're far from the only countries on my no go list though.

We can do it. Elon landing that gigantic rocket is proof enough.

Whether we can do it faster than China is the question. A question many people are in denial about because of patriotism. Many people can’t handle it if the answer in actuality was that China will be better.

It’s due to a sudden technological advancement and quality of life in China. You cannot discount this, the technological and economic growth China has seen within the last two decades has not been seen in the history of mankind.

Don't think so. People might say that but they haven't really grappled with what it means. China is neither particularly popular nor unpopular, and most people just don't have strong opinions about it because it's hardly ever in the news. But once they invade Taiwan that all changes.

Was one of those medals "number of test subjects killed"?