Space program contrast - Essay Example

There is some speculation that spending more money on the space program in the United States is not wise when there are so many problems within this world. However, the Chinese have established an active space program, owed to the efforts of Qian Xuesen (Tsien Hsue-Shen), with the Japanese making efforts towards space, thus suggesting that the United States needs to continue technological advancements in order to continue to compete on many levels of national importance. In comparing the United States to China and Japan, an understanding of the US position in the space race can contribute to examining the future of the US space program.

The first manned flight into space happened in in April of 1961 by Yuri Gagarin originating from the Soviet Union, with the first US manned space flight occurring on May 5 of the same year with Alan Shepard achieving that honor. The space race was occurring between the United States and the Soviet Union, a race that was as much about competing and differing ideologies as it was about national pride. The Americans spent 25.5 billion dollars to be the first on the moon, a promise that President Kennedy made to the public in saying that the US would put a man on the moon by the end of the decade.

1 Despite the loss of President Kennedy in 1963, the American public would not be denied this dream and on July 20, 1969 Neil Armstrong took the first known human steps onto the moon, winning this victory against the race that was being waged against the USSR.2 Japan has yet to put a man into space, but is entering into the race with a spirit of cooperation. Japan can give Dr. Hiteo Itokawa as the originating scientist who advanced their program which is now the third nation in spending on their program.

3 As a cooperating member of the European Space Agency, Japan put in 2.6 billion dollars into the program in 2006, with Russia putting in 1.5 billion and India putting in 900 million in that year.4 The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, or JAXA has entered into a global effort to explore space, this being done as a result of the enormous costs of space exploration without cooperative global efforts. Japanese astronauts have gone into space with international groups, most recently astronaut Koichi Wakata being chosen to be part of a team to go to the international space station for the 38th/39th mission, having been on a previous mission in 2009 for four months.

5 Japan provides an example of how global cooperation leads to national advantages in technologically challenging fields of interest. Cooperation does have its disadvantages for the United States. History has shown that collaboration ultimately ends up in a slowed pace on accomplishing goals and creates greater costs. When the International Space Station was being built, Russia was years late in delivering its hardware and NASA’s costs became out of control. In contributing only 5% of the total financial contribution, Russia has benefited from 40% of the facilities on the station and made billions through the sale of the hardware created to other nations.

6 Cooperation with China has a larger problem then creating potential undo costs and delays for the United States. China does not provide transparency, which means much of its work in space technologies is kept as a national secret. Creating a sense of trust would be a difficult task, an issue that is vital to creating true collaboration. In September