[r9etb]

And in the early 60's, putting a man on the moon was beyond our abilities too.

Please note -- we're not talking about moon landings, but a moon base. We were able to do the former, but were far from being able to do the latter, because it required far more oomph than we had on hand at the time.

The Chinese are nowhere close, either. That's why I'm calling this political posturing -- just reading the article makes that clear: "From a long-term perspective, it is a historical necessity for man to travel into space," a poster at the exhibition proclaimed.

[Hodar]

The Chinese are no-where close? Let's define the term 'no where' shall we. Heavy lift rocket plans already exist, and we have made the plans public. Russia currently has booster engines (in production, and in current use) far more powerful than what we have ever used. We have 3 sets of booster engines, and all three are currently on display as museaum pieces at various NASA installations (Florida, Alabama and Texas). As far as telemetry, computers, life-support, and power generation goes, China is at least equal to us. Fuel Cell technology is not limited to us, and using Lithium Hydroxide as a CO2 cleanser is nothing new. China is also a dictatorship, thus; should they choose to aggressively pursue space, they will. The USA on the other hand can't decide what to do with NASA. We can't even agree if we are at war with terrorism, Afghanistan, Al-Quaida, Iraq, Iran or just Bin Laden (or a mixture of all the above). The shuttle is 30+ year old technology, and we have no timeline to upgrade existing craft. NASA has no vision, politicians have blinded it, and unions have crippled it.