The Competition Among Stars

Abstract

The creation of long-range missile technology in the late 1940s was a milestone where a new domain of activity – Earth orbit and outer space – emerged. These extremely expensive research and development programs were strictly limited only to a small club of the most developed and innovative countries, but even almost seven decades after the launch of the first satellite, only a few players could independently participate in the exploration of space. Three of them: the United States, the Russian Federation as political and technological heir of the Soviet Union, and the People's Republic of China mastered all the most important milestones of space technology to take full part in both the Cold War- and the new space race. The aim of this chapter is to explain and understand the areas of competition between the three superpowers in space, what are the most important events where the competition-management was applied and what are the perspectives/consequences of the new countries joining the space competition area within the current decade.