Ni Hao, Moon.

HU JINTAO, China's Communist Party leader, could hardly have asked for such perfect timing. Or maybe he did. Scarcely had the party finished its ritual “election” of him for another five years, than a Chinese rocket on October 24th propelled a satellite on China's—and the developing world's—first foray to the moon.

Mr Hu must have watched the launch from Xichang in south-western China with bated breath. Only last month, Japan became the first Asian nation to send a satellite to orbit the moon. China had wanted to send its satellite, Chang'e I, up in April but unspecified technical difficulties prevented that. The delay provided a chance for the launch to coincide with Mr Hu's political triumph (never in any doubt). Failure this time might even have put China behind India, which is hoping to launch a similar orbiter next year (as is America). Not since the 1970s has the moon received so much exploratory attention. [...]

But Vincent Sabathier of the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, DC, says China is being careful not to rile America by talking of a space race. Despite Mr Griffin's remarks, he says NASA still thinks it has a 20-year lead in space technology. Jiao Weixin of Peking University says China would not have the technical ability to put a man on the moon for another 20 years, well beyond America's target return date. And it would be very expensive. “You can't just say that because America landed on the moon in the 1960s, we ought to do it too,” says Mr Jiao. That, however, is the general idea.

Read the article