Edward Hudgins

This year is slated to be a record year for China's space missions. A surge is underway and expected to result in an unprecedented number and variety of missions. It was only on October 15, 2003, that China joined the United States and Russia as a country capable of putting humans in space. The launch of that country's "taikonaut," Yang Liwei, harkened back to the launch on October 4, 1957, by the Soviet Union of Sputnik, the first artificial Earth satellite, and on April 12, 1961, of Yuri Gagarin, the first man into space - both ahead of the United States.

June 2010--President Barack Obama has rightly described U.S.-India relations as "one of the defining partnerships of the 21^st century." India is the second-fastest growing economy in the world and is now a key player in the G-20. The United States has benefitted from close cooperation with India in combating both terrorism and nuclear proliferation.