Washington. December 5th. INTERFAX - China is advancing in the development of space technologies twice as vigorously as the United States, threatening to overtake them by the end of the 2020s, Deputy Head of Space Operations in the US Space Forces General David Thompson said at the Ronald Reagan National Defense Forum.
"The truth is that, on average, they (China - IF) create, deploy and modernize their space potential twice as large as us, which means that very soon, if we do not begin to accelerate our development and capabilities to deliver objects into space, they will bypass us. 2030 is not an excessive assessment of the situation," CNN quoted him as saying.
Democratic Congressman Jim Cooper, who also attended the forum and chairs the subcommittee on strategic forces in the House Armed Services Committee, agreed that the United States and China are now leading a space race.
He added that the US Space Forces are not yet developing fast enough to be on par with the private space industry.
