China successfully built a fully operational, crewed space station — Tiangong — in just two years, with an estimated cost of $10–12 billion. In contrast, the International Space Station (ISS) took over a decade to construct, involved multiple nations, and cost more than $150 billion in taxpayer money.
The key difference? Efficiency, centralization, and minimal bureaucracy.
While Western nations navigate tenders, political debates, and administrative hurdles, China focuses on swift execution with a clear, unified objective — delivering faster results at a fraction of the cost.
This raises an important question:
Are public space budgets in the U.S. and Europe truly being used as effectively as they could be?