America Is Choosing to Lose the New Space Race

The U.S. can't be a space superpower if it dismantles NASA's science projects

- BY THE EDITORS

IN THE EARLY 1400s, nearly a century before Columbus's fateful voyage to the Americas, China seemed most poised to use maritime might to create a global empire. Beginning in 1405, Ming Dynasty admiral Zheng He commanded a fleet of immense “treasure ships” on a series of expeditions across the Indian Ocean, showcasing China’s wealth and strength as far afield as the eastern coast of Africa. But by 1433 the state-sponsored voyages had ceased.

Scholars still debate what led 15th-century China to turn inward, ceding its power—and ultimately the discovery of what would become the New World—to others. But regardless of its cause, the missed opportunity is unquestionable.

Today a strange echo of this episode is unfolding—on the high frontier of space rather than the high seas. This time, however, China is rising to prominence as the U.S. squanders its advantages.

Unlike the Ming court that made no secret of decisively abandoning China’s naval aspirations, some U.S. leaders now embrace space as a vital, contested domain. But while they insist they’re setting a course for America’s continued dominance in space science, technology and exploration, their actions are contradicting and undermining that goal.

Skepticism about, if not outright scorn for, civilian space spending is practically a bipartisan tradition in U.S. politics, but we are talking chiefly about the “Make America Great Again” policymaking of President Donald J. Trump.