Space flight in service of science

Tiangong-1 (or Heavenly Palace) space module is the first step toward China's plan to build a space station around 2020. Its launch by China has unnerved some countries, which are asking why China did not add on to the International Space Station that has been in place since 1998. After all, the Americans, Russians, Europeans and Japanese are using one platform to experiment in space.

Questions have also been asked about China's ultimate purpose in space and hints made that there is something as diabolical as the theme in a James Bond movie, in which Chinese-looking enemies were at the root of some evil plot to control the world.

Chinese don't see themselves that way, and never in history have they been flag-planting colonialists. Most Westerners are schooled in the exploits of the great European explorers, headed by Christopher Columbus and James Cook, and followed closely by the legions of culture egotists with a mix of guns, gold and the gospel in their hands.