“first mission to Chinese space-station”
Gotta hand it to the Chinese, they didn’t put up their space station, then name it the “International Space Station”.
We paid over 80%, probably more like 90% of the cost of our space station, and then named it the “International Space Station”.
Then we neglected to replace the shuttle, and discontinued our manned space program.
Do our leaders have a screw loose or what? You get one guess, and the ‘or what’ option was scratched.
I mean, where can you find great leaders like this? We’re so fricken lucky. /s
50 years ago this past February, America truly became a space-faring nation when John Glenn orbited the Earth. Today, we don't have this capability, and have no immediate prospects for regaining it. All we can do is send taxpayer dollars over to Putin to hitch rides on Russian rockets. Pretty sad when the once-premier space-faring country cannot do today what it could do a half-century ago. Our military depends heavily on satellites for communications, reconnaissance, positioning, etc. Those who hate us can destroy those assets fairly readily. We have no capability of defending them. For the loss of military capability alone, the decline of the space program in this country is a crime and a threat to national security.