THE NEW HIGH GROUND, 21ST

THE NEW HIGH GROUND, 21ST CENTURY STYLE: Brink Lindsey says that China intends to land a man on the moon by the end of this decade:

On Monday China launched Shenzou 3 into Earth orbit — the third in a series of unpiloted test flights leading toward an eventual manned space program. China’s stated objective is to achieve manned spaceflight by 2005, but analysts think that the first flight with Chinese “taikonauts” could come sooner. And the Chinese don’t intend to stop in Earth orbit: Their goal is to get back to the Moon by the end of the decade.

I wonder how the United States would react if China does develop a serious manned space program. Could this be the ticket to shake the U.S. program out of its brain-dead space shuttle/space station rut?