US's Quantitative Easing (QE) ended, but not financial supremacy

By Luo Jie

The Federal Reserve has officially announced an end to the third round of its quantitative easing bond-buying program. To deal with the financial crisis and make up for the failure of the US government to adequately stimulate the economy, the Federal Reserve has generated trillions of dollars for the American economy in the past six years. It shifted its own financial burden to the rest of the world to some extent.

Europe and Japan also adopted the policy of quantitative easing, albeit with little result. But the US achieved its goal. The fundamental reason is that it is the dollar, rather than the euro or the yen, which is the world's currency for clearance and reserve. The US dominance of the world's financial system has remained quite solid.

When the US pushed forward this policy of quantitative easing, the world complained because the US was dragging down countries and institutions that hold US dollars. Now that the US government and the Federal Reserve have gained some confidence, quantitative easing was abandoned. But Washington has shown indifference to the world's reactions.

In the past six years, there has been much discussion of US decline. The situation in Iraq and Afghanistan enables people to see the limitation of US influence, but the capabilities of US systems still surpass those of other countries. These capabilities are more than enough to maintain the US as a global superpower when it is at the center of a global crisis.

Some media recently speculated that on the purchasing-power basis, China is overtaking the US and becoming the world's biggest economy. China's GDP has been supported by low-end economic activities. It has a long way to go to build up its high-end economic capabilities and build financial systems. Besides the economy, China lags behind the US in terms of national defense, soft power and diplomatic partnerships.

To put it more precisely, China cannot compare with the US. But comparing the two has been popular both within and outside China. Chasing or passing the US can hardly become a China policy. China needs to undergo a tough process to make it stronger.

Both China and the US should keep a sober mind to discuss the possibilities of big power relationship patterns in the 21st century. US financial dominance indeed makes China uneasy, while China takes the initiative to establish an Asian infrastructure investment bank, the US is highly alert and tries to exclude its allies such as Australia and South Korea.

China is clear about its gap with the US. How to narrow it is not only an issue for China, but also for both. The US will not be able to monopolize the world's development opportunities. Its material decline is real, and only when it adds flexibility to the current world order, can its interests be maximized. In the international community, when the strength of a superpower is declining, its morality will be tested.

Souce: Global Time

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Terrible week for US Spaceflights: NASA rocket explodes, Virgin spaceship crashes

Wreckage from Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo spacecraft is seen after the vehicle crashed on Oct. 31, 2014 during a test flight out of the Mojave Air and Space Port in California.

The burgeoning field of spaceflight suffered two serious blows this week.





The bad news began on Tuesday (Oct. 28), when Orbital Sciences Corp.'s Antares rocket exploded just seconds after blasting off on an unmanned cargo mission to the International Space Station for NASA. Then, on Friday (Oct. 31), SpaceShipTwo crashed during a test flight; one of the two pilots aboard was killed and the other injured, apparently seriously.

The causes of the two accidents are unclear at the moment, and so are the consequences. But the fallout could be huge for Orbital Sciences, Virgin Galactic and the entire private spaceflight industry, which has been building up some serious momentum over the past several years.Photos: SpaceShipTwo's Test Flights



Virginia-based Orbital Sciences holds a $1.9 billion contract with NASA to make eight robotic cargo runs to the space station using Antares and the company's Cygnus spacecraft. Orbital had completed two such missions without incident before Tuesday's rocket explosion.

Another company, California-based SpaceX, also signed a deal to ferry cargo to the space station for NASA. The agency is paying SpaceX $1.6 billion to fly 12 unmanned supply missions to the orbiting lab using the firm's Dragon capsule and Falcon 9 rocket. So far, SpaceX has flown four of these missions, and all have been successful.

NASA is also looking to the private sector to take astronauts to and from low-Earth orbit. Last month, the agency awarded SpaceX and Boeing multibillion-dollar contracts to continue developing their crewed vehicles — a manned version of Dragon in SpaceX's case and a capsule called the CST-100 for Boeing.

NASA officials hope at least one of these spaceships is up and running by 2017. The agency has been dependent on Russian Soyuz spacecraft to ferry American astronauts to and from the space station since 2011, when NASA's space shuttle fleet retired.

NASA officials expressed confidence in Orbital Sciences after Tuesday's launch mishap, citing the company's two successful supply missions to the space station. The agency also seemed to affirm its commitment to private cargo delivery.

"Launching rockets is an incredibly difficult undertaking, and we learn from each success and each setback," Bill Gerstenmaier, head of NASA's Human Exploration and Operations Directorate, said in a statement Tuesday. "Today's launch attempt will not deter us from our work to expand our already successful capability to launch cargo from American shores to the International Space Station."

Meanwhile, Virgin Galactic and Scaled Composites — the company that built the six-passenger, two-pilot SpaceShipTwo — are dealing with a tragedy that claimed a life.

Virgin Galactic founder Sir Richard Branson has previously expressed hope that commercial operations of SpaceShipTwo will begin sometime in 2015. Friday's crash, which occurred during the suborbital space plane's fourth rocket-powered flight and 55th overall test flight, will almost certainly push that timeline back.

But Virgin Galactic representatives vowed that they will continue their work to get SpaceShipTwo up and running. And the entire industry will bounce back as well, said Stuart Witt, CEO of Mojave Air and Space Port in California, which hosts SpaceShipTwo's test flights.

"It hasn't been an easy week. It's certainly been a challenge," Witt said during a post-crash news conference Friday. "But where I'm from, this is where you find out your true character."

By Mike Wall @Spacedotcom

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Chinese unmanned lunar orbiter returns home

Experimental orbiter prepares for home trip - CCTV News - CCTV.com English 

China's unmanned lunar orbiter returns home - CCTV News - CCTV.com English

China succeeded Saturday in the world's first mission to the Moon and back in some 40 years, becoming the third nation to do so after the former Soviet Union and the United States.

The test lunar orbiter, nicknamed "Xiaofei" on Chinese social networks, landed in Siziwang Banner of China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region early Saturday morning.

Search teams have already recovered the orbiter at the designated landing area, about 500 kilometers away from Beijing.

Launched Friday last week, the orbiter traversed 840,000 kilometers on its eight-day mission that saw it round the far side of the Moon and take some incredible pictures of Earth and Moon together.

The re-entry process began at around 6:13 a.m. Saturday morning, with the orbiter approaching Earth at a velocity of about 11.2 kilometers per second.

The high speed led to hefty friction between the orbiter and air and high temperatures on the craft's exterior, generating an ion sheath that cut off contact between ground command and the orbiter.

To help it slow down, the craft is designed to "bounce" off the edge of the atmosphere, before re-entering again. The process has been compared to a stone skipping across water, and can shorten the "braking distance" for the orbiter, according to Zhou Jianliang, chief engineer with the Beijing Aerospace Command and Control Center.

"Really, this is like braking a car," said Zhou, "The faster you drive, the longer the distance you need to bring the car to a complete stop."

The "bounce" was one of the biggest challenges of the mission, because the craft must enter the atmosphere at a very precise angle. An error of 0.2 degrees would have rendered the mission a failure.

Wu Yanhua, vice director of China's State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense, said the successful test mission has gathered a lot of experimental data and laid a solid foundation for future missions.`  

Paving way for new probe

The eight-day program is a test run for the final chapter of China's three-step--orbiting, landing and finally returning--lunar program.

"Xiaofei" is obtaining data and validating re-entry technology such as the heat shield and trajectory design for a future landing on the moon by Chang'e-5.

Earlier reports said Chang'e-5 will be launched around 2017. The goal is to collect samples from the Moon and return to Earth. If successful, China will become the third nation to do so.

Calling "Xiaofei" a pathfinder for Chang'e-5, Zhou Jianliang said the data acquired by the lunar orbiter will optimize technology for Chang'e-5.

Hao Xifan, deputy chief of China's third phase lunar exploration program, also said the mission validated ground support capacities, craft landing technology and recoverable spacecraft technology.

According to Wu Weiren, chief designer of China's lunar exploration program, Chang'e-5 is expected to collect a 2-kg sample from two meters under the Moon's surface and bring it home.

Aside from the high-speed re-entry, major technological challenges for the craft center on surface sampling, taking off from the Moon, and lunar orbit rendezvous, Wu said.

READY TO MAKE HISTORY, AGAIN

China launched a pair of orbiting lunar probes and last year landed a craft on the moon with a rover on board.

Saturday's success is another step forward for China's ambition that could eventually land a Chinese citizen there. Few countries can rival China's space program although China never intended to participate in any "space race".

In an earlier interview with Xinhua, Wu Weiren said lunar probe technology and software could be of great economic value if adapted for commercial use.

Commercial gains aside, the space program is already a marker of China's global stature and technical expertise. The Chang'e lunar probes - named after a goddess who took her pet Yutu, or jade rabbit, to the moon - are a symbol of great national pride.

The country sent its first astronaut into space in 2003, becoming the third nation after Russia and the U.S. to achieve manned space travel independently. In 2008, astronauts aboard the Shenzhou-7 made China's first space walk. There are plans for a permanent space station, expected to be set up around 2022.

The Chang'e-1 and Chang'e-2 missions in 2007 and 2010 respectively, capped the orbital phase of the three step project. Chang'e-1 crashed onto the Moon's surface at the end of its mission, and Chang'e-2 was sent into deep space to become China's first man-made asteroid.

The ongoing second phase saw Chang'e-3 soft land on the moon carrying moon rover Yutu in December 2013. Chang'e-4 was a backup for Chang'e-3 and has not been deployed.

In the meantime, Yutu has entered its 11th dormancy earlier October, although its functions have degraded considerably after it encountered control issues in January this year. Experts had feared that it might never function again, but Yutu has stubbornly managed to wake up from its sleep mode ever since.

None of those missions were intended to return to Earth and this has pushed the 2017 mission further into spotlight.

"The Chang'e-5 mission will be yet another historic moment for China's lunar program," Wu said.

(Xinhua)

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