[Excerpt] Fifty years ago, when the Apollo 11 astronauts became the first human beings to land on the moon, the Chinese space program had yet to launch a single satellite.
The fierce space race between the United States and the Soviet Union had left behind Beijing, which launched its first manned space flight in 2003, more than 40 years after NASA’s achievement.
But in recent decades, as China has grown richer and more powerful, its space program has accelerated.