In Chinese myths and legends, humans often climb up into the skies and venture into space. Beijing often makes use of these motifs to promote the idea of space as a non-ideological realm, free of Earthly politics.

But ever since the mid-20th century Cold War "Space Race" between the United States and the Soviet Union, the politicization of space has been glaringly obvious. For competing nations, a lot is at stake: technological supremacy, plus the chance to flex economic and innovative clout.

Space titan China

Beijing once again proved its mettle as one of the world's major space powers on Thursday when three taikonauts (Chinese astronauts) set off on the "Divine Ship" Shenzhou-17 for the Chinese space station, Tiangong. After ten minutes of flight time and six-and-a-half hours for docking maneuvers, they arrived safely in the "Heavenly Palace" (the English translation of Tiangong).

After two successful predecessor trial projects, Tiangong-1 (2011-2017) and Tiangong-2 (2016-2019), China started building the new "Heavenly Palace" in 2021. Construction was completed in November 2022. Three spacecraft ― one supply craft and two space capsules ― can dock on the station simultaneously.

Small but mighty

The Chinese press has dubbed the space station the "three-room apartment" for its comparatively compact size. It is around 100 tons lighter than the International Space Station(ISS), which itself weighs in at around 450 tons. Tiangong is designed to operate for 15 years at an orbital altitude of around 450 kilometers (280 miles).

At a recent conference in Azerbaijan, China announced it wanted to double the number of docked modules from three to six in the coming years.

Moreover, China is ready to take foreign space travelers along to Tiangong, the deputy director of the China Manned Space Agency, Lin Xiqiang, said.

"We extend an invitation to the world and welcome all countries and regions committed to the peaceful use of outer space to cooperate with us and participate in the Chinese space station missions," he said.

Blast-off with military honors

China's space program is under the supervision of the military, the People's Liberation Army. Selection and training of astronauts is closely bound up with the army. Of China's 18 taikonauts so far, two of them women, only one civilian was able to fly into space, as a payload expert during the last mission.

But like all the space travelers who went before him, the university lecturer put his right hand on his helmet as a mark of respect for the military and the fatherland when he took off in the Shenzhou-16.

The list of China's achievements to date and future plans is long: placing a lunar probe on the dark side of the moon in 2019, landing a Mars rover in 2021, installing a third space telescope by 2024 (to be docked to the space station for fuel tanking and supply), as well as its first manned moon mission by 2030.

In the race for space supremacy, the Chinese are hot on the heels of the US' National Aeronautics and Space Agency (NASA). The only other space station apart from Tiangong in operation is the ISS, which has had a permanent crew in space since the year 2000.

China is barred from taking part in the international project due to opposition from the US. With the ISS only foreseen to operate until 2030, Tiangong should soon find itself to be humanity's only outpost in orbit.

"China is already a major power in space and masters the whole spectrum of space disciplines," Thomas Reiter, a former European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut from Germany, told DW.

"That puts the country on par with the world's other spacefaring nations, the US and Russia," Reiter, who spent a total of 350 days, 4 hours and 55 minutes in space, said.

Ideology in orbit

Fresh success in space is always a good opportunity for the government in Beijing to amp up national pride and distract the public from problems like a lackluster economy or youth unemployment. State television broadcast the blast-off live on its fourth channel, CCTV-4, viewable worldwide.

Viewers in the US are highly sought after, given the rivalry between Beijing and Washington. US laws prohibit NASA from cooperating with its Chinese counterpart.

"In reaching for the stars, China and the U.S. are vying not only for national prestige and global technological leadership, but also for geopolitical influence and military power," Johann C. Fuhrmann, who has headed the Beijing office of Germany's Konrad Adenauer Foundation since 2021, wrote in a report earlier this year.

India, China's big competitor in Asia, has now also entered the space race. The country announced plans to build its own space station by 2035 and to land on the moon by 2040.

Europe on the fence

In Europe, the ESA discovered the potential of China's ambitious space program early on. With China investing huge amounts in space exploration, many ESA astronauts completed intensive Chinese language programs, including German astronaut Matthias Maurer.

In 2017, Maurer participated in offshore survival training in China with Chinese colleagues to prepare for a possible sea landing. In the end, things turned out differently. Maurer spent 176 days on the ISS from 2021 to 2022.

In January this year, ESA Director General Josef Aschbacher said the agency would focus on its commitments to the ISS for now.

"At the moment, we have neither the budgetary nor political green light to engage in a second space station, in other words the Chinese space station," Aschbacher said at a press conference. Nonetheless, the Chinese space agency CNSA currently counts 10 joint projects with the ESA.

Defusing geopolitical tension

For former astronaut Reiter, international collaboration in space is a good thing.

"Space and science in general should be able to help us keep open channels of communication in situations like this," Reiter said. "Once the dust has settled a bit, we should restart this conversation with China and look for projects."

Space travel necessitates long-term planning, often starting many years before a project's execution. Reiter would like the ESA to prepare the ground for its own astronauts to be able to travel to Tiangong.

"The ESA recently selected its new astronaut corps. Maybe some of them are toying with the idea of learning Chinese so they can be deployed, just in case," he said.

Reiter himself was stationed in the now-deorbited Russian space station Mir for his first space mission. "Everything was written in Russian. People only spoke Russian. On my second deployment to the ISS, it was exactly the same in the Russian modules," he explained.

"We have this large international group of researchers in orbit," Reiter underlined. "If this international cooperation can carry on, then that is something we definitely should support."

This article was adapted from German.