Hundreds of miles above the earth’s surface, there are currently two space stations circling the globe: the International Space Station — completed over a decade ago through a collaboration between Europe, the U.S., Russia, Canada and Japan — and Tiangong, due for completion this year by one nation: China. Tiangong, which means ‘heavenly palace,’ is only one part of China’s effort in space. In the last two years, it has launched its first independent mission to another planet, completed a global satellite navigation system, and collected samples from the lunar surface. These landmark achievements signal China’s arrival as a major player in space — a development which has set off alarm bells in the U.S. about the two countries’ geopolitical competition spreading to yet another frontier. And while the majority of experts agree that the U.S. is still dominant in most space technologies and applications, as China becomes increasingly active in space, questions are m