I found this article to be very interesting. It discusses at a glancing level the emergence of what some would call a modern day Space Race. In fact in the article itself it calls the actions of both the US and China a “Space Race”. But it does one very important thing; it highlights the difference between the Cold War era Space Race with the Russians and this one. This escalation of space exploration is being not only run by two separate and distinct nations… it’s also being run by two separate entities. Chinas advancement, which astounding in how fast they have progressed is being spear headed by its Government Owned entities according to the article, while the US is primarily being funded and executed by private organizations. Which anyone would agree with, given the meteoric rise of companies like SpaceX, Blue Origin, ULA and so many more.
The article then delves more into how private investment has created, what I am calling a new branch of technology and the article simply refers to as “Dual Use”. So technology that has both commercial/ civil and military use applications. It got me wondering if more domains, such as oceanic exploration and aviation will see more private sector investment and technology development that functions as dual use? Not only does it force a new method of defense but a potentially ground breaking one in terms of a nations ability to scale its defenses.

Respectfully

Eric A

reference: https://spacenews.com/in-the-west-ties-between-space-and-defense-are-strengthening/