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Alan W. Dowd is a Senior Fellow with the American Security Council Foundation, where he writes on the full range of topics relating to national defense, foreign policy and international security. Dowd’s commentaries and essays have appeared in Policy Review, Parameters, Military Officer, The American Legion Magazine, The Journal of Diplomacy and International Relations, The Claremont Review of Books, World Politics Review, The Wall Street Journal Europe, The Jerusalem Post, The Financial Times Deutschland, The Washington Times, The Baltimore Sun, The Washington Examiner, The Detroit News, The Sacramento Bee, The Vancouver Sun, The National Post, The Landing Zone, Current, The World & I, The American Enterprise, Fraser Forum, American Outlook, The American and the online editions of Weekly Standard, National Review and American Interest. Beyond his work in opinion journalism, Dowd has served as an adjunct professor and university lecturer; congressional aide; and administrator, researcher and writer at leading think tanks, including the Hudson Institute, Sagamore Institute and Fraser Institute. An award-winning writer, Dowd has been interviewed by Fox News Channel, Cox News Service, The Washington Times, The National Post, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and numerous radio programs across North America. In addition, his work has been quoted by and/or reprinted in The Guardian, CBS News, BBC News and the Council on Foreign Relations. Dowd holds degrees from Butler University and Indiana University. Follow him at twitter.com/alanwdowd.

ASCF News

Scott Tilley is a Senior Fellow at the American Security Council Foundation, where he writes the “Technical Power” column, focusing on the societal and national security implications of advanced technology in cybersecurity, space, and foreign relations.

He is an emeritus professor at the Florida Institute of Technology. Previously, he was with the University of California, Riverside, Carnegie Mellon University’s Software Engineering Institute, and IBM. His research and teaching were in the areas of computer science, software & systems engineering, educational technology, the design of communication, and business information systems.

He is president and founder of the Center for Technology & Society, president and co-founder of Big Data Florida, past president of INCOSE Space Coast, and a Space Coast Writers’ Guild Fellow.

He has authored over 150 academic papers and has published 28 books (technical and non-technical), most recently Systems Analysis & Design (Cengage, 2020), SPACE (Anthology Alliance, 2019), and Technical Justice (CTS Press, 2019). He wrote the “Technology Today” column for FLORIDA TODAY from 2010 to 2018.

He is a popular public speaker, having delivered numerous keynote presentations and “Tech Talks” for a general audience. Recent examples include the role of big data in the space program, a four-part series on machine learning, and a four-part series on fake news.

He holds a Ph.D. in computer science from the University of Victoria (1995).

Contact him at stilley@cts.today.

China Advances Space Station Ambition With Module Launch

Thursday, April 29, 2021

Categories: ASCF News Emerging Threats

Comments: 0

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HONG KONG—China sent a core component of its new space station into orbit, marking a key milestone in the country’s ambitions to establish a permanent presence in space.

The 22-ton Tianhe module will eventually serve as the life-support and control center for taikonauts, as Chinese astronauts are called. It was launched Thursday morning from the Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Site on Hainan, an island off China’s southwestern coast.

China is planning a series of other launches into orbit this year, some of which will combine with Tianhe to form the Tiangong, or Heavenly Palace, space station. The country plans for the permanent space base to be operational by next year. It is seen as a rival to the much larger International Space Station, the multinational base involving space agencies including NASA.

“The successful launch of the Tianhe core module indicates that the construction of our country’s space station has entered the stage of full implementation and lays a solid foundation for subsequent missions,” Chinese President Xi Jinping was quoted as saying by state media agency Xinhua.

Mr. Xi said that the construction of the space station and the completion of a national space laboratory were important goals for China’s manned spaceflight project and an important step toward the nation becoming powerful in science, technology and aerospace.

China’s space program has made strides in the past few years. The China National Space Administration currently has a mission to Mars, known as Tianwen-1. It plans to land a rover on the red planet as early as May.

Tiangong will be China’s first self-developed space station, independently constructed and operated by China. Its successful launch is seen as a source of national pride. Premier Li Keqiang and other top leaders watched the launch live from a control center in Beijing, state media footage showed. Over the past decade, China has launched two experimental modules into space to prepare for a permanent station.

Since 2011, China has been excluded from working with NASA by U.S. law.

China’s push into space comes as the U.S. also passes new milestones. NASA’s Mars Ingenuity helicopter made history on Mars earlier this month when the drone became the first powered craft to fly on another world.

In the coming months, China plans additional launches to send cargo and crew to the Tianhe module, including the other two core modules that will form the bulk of the space station.

Photo and link: https://www.wsj.com/articles/china-advances-space-station-ambition-with-module-launch-11619699757

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