Shenzhou Success

China's Shenzhou 7 mission seems to have been a complete and rousing success. The centerpiece of the mission, the first Chinese spacewallk, went off without a hitch, and the spacecraft made a safe landing in the steppes of Inner Mongolia earlier today.

Both the twenty-minute spacewalk and the landing were televised live in China. That suggests a confidence and openness more in line with NASA's approach than with the old Soviet way, even though Shenzhou is based on the Soyuz spacecraft, and Russian experts are advising the Chinese program.

The next hurdle China has to clear on its way to building a space station and going to the Moon is probably docking in space. That may require flying two manned missions simultaneously, which would be a sign of a truly serious and maturing program.