The West is falling behind China in the next space race

It is the first duty of governments to keep their citizens safe, protecting them from harm. This means constantly being vigilant. We have to keep a close eye on our adversaries and competitors and their capabilities, whether they are states, organisations or individuals. But vigilance is not enough on its own – imagination is also vital.

Twenty years ago, after the September 2001 terrorist attacks, the 9/11 Commission concluded that ‘the most important failure was one of imagination’. The security threat from jihadists was seen but not properly understood, even by leading experts. They had all the available facts. They just hadn’t used their imagination to join the dots and see the gravity of the threat.

Is there a similar blind spot, two decades later, on space policy? It seems like it. On an almost weekly basis, we hear of a remarkable technological breakthrough by China – a rival and potential adversary in the era of great power competition – often taking us by surprise.