The United States is neglecting the long game. We can’t afford to be bogged down by annual budget fights or distracted by the drama of election cycles. Instead, we must consider the bigger picture. In an era of enduring strategic competition with China, remaining shortsighted and reactive will lead to failure. Of all the areas that demand our attention in U.S.-China competition, outer space is uniquely important. Space has tremendous untapped economic potential and is becoming increasingly accessible. In the next five years, the global space economy is projected to grow to $800 billion. Over the long term, the space economy is estimated to grow to $4 trillion during the 2040s and reach $10 trillion by 2050. Space may one day even host entire communities of people who permanently live and work outside of Earth’s atmosphere. Many countries, companies and other stakeholders understand the importance of space. They also recognize the need to move quickly. The global shift to reusable launch vehicles, the on-going Moon rush and the surge of venture capital investments in space technology startups are all part of a global space expansion effort. The Chinese Communist Party is already strategizing ways to influence and control future space activity. In 2017, China revealed its ambitions to become the dominant spacepower economically, militarily and politically by 2045. But China’s ambitions for space reach even further. In September, China presented a comprehensive roadmap for developing an expansive space resource exploitation and logistics architecture through the year 2100. This architecture would be incrementally built to span much of the solar system, including the Moon, Mars, Jupiter’s moons and multiple asteroids.
Full opinion : America needs a grand strategy for outer space.
