A Busy October

While the world is focused on the Beijing Olympics, China is moving ahead with its manned space program. Last week, China's news services reported the Shenzhou 7 spacecraft is undergoing final preparation for an October flight. The mission will carry a crew of three taikonauts into orbit and will feature the first Chinese spacewalk. The ability to do work in space, outside the capsule, is critical to China's plan to build a space station in Earth orbit.

NASA plans to be busy in October, as well. The next shuttle flight, and the last servicing mission to the Hubble Space Telescope, is scheduled for early in the month. It's possible, therefore, that China and NASA will be undertaking particularly demanding missions at the same time. One is trying to find a direction for its future after an extraordinary past, while the other is trying to establish itself as a space power. How each of those futures in space unfolds may tell us something about which nation will lead Earth through this century.