In May, SpaceX became the first of the new generation of commercial aerospace companies to deliver cargo to the International Space Station. The cargo delivery was part of the first flight test of the integrated Falcon-9 launch vehicle and the Dragon capsule spacecraft with rendezvous and berthing mechanism systems. By all accounts, the major test objectives were successfully achieved. Previously, such spacecraft and operations had only been achieved by governments. What made this a historic first was that a commercial company had done it. The news was widely covered in the international media, especially in the United States. One month later, China launched its fourth crewed space mission, Shenzhou-9. This was also a history-making flight, in that China, which had in 2003 become only the third nation capable of launching astronauts into space (and is now only one of two, since the retirement of the U.S. space shuttle in 2011), demonstrated crewed rendezvous and docking to their orbital module, Tiangong-1. The crew also featured China's first female astronaut. They spent several days docked to Tiangong-1 conducting various operations, before safely returning to Earth on Thursday night.
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Leroy Chiao: China's first manned space docking in June was a giant step for the country
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Chiao: We celebrated SpaceX's mission, but were notably quieter about China's mission
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He says: We downplay China's accomplishments at our own peril
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Chiao: We don't need another space race, but we must not lose our leadership in space
@placeholder is off to an impressive start, but it will be several years from now before they (and/or other commercial players) could have an operational, crewed orbital spacecraft.