Just two years ago, America’s longstanding dominance in space seemed under threat. China had been surging ahead for more than a decade and planned to become the world’s leading space power. …Most troubling: Beijing continues to test and develop antisatellite weapons that could cripple the GPS and other space-based systems on which the U.S. would rely in time of war.
In the past year, however, the energy and vision in the U.S. government has shifted, thanks to the Trump administration and NASA’s new administrator, Jared Isaacman. Meanwhile, Beijing is struggling to keep its space ambitions on track.