Agree. The long game here runs well into the next century. We’ll be long gone. The important thing now is not to let the profit-driven engineering mentality suck all the youthful energy and enthusiasm out of our efforts. Because the Chinese will gladly replace the West if it can catch up with and pass us. The CCP knows exactly what it wants.
And all it will take is us losing our focus now.
Even worse, the legacy aerospace companies will ...no, I should not even think or write down what just flashed through my thoughts. After all, they are not Hollywood or the NBA. Right?
The legacy aerospace comp, are not even close to SpaceX, the chinks have a long way to go. Not sure just how many manned flights they have. There Mars rover has not landed yet