China successfully launched the Shenzhou-21 crewed spaceship on Friday, marking another milestone in its expanding space program. Lincoln Hines, an assistant professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology, noted that China has made remarkable advances in space exploration in recent years. If the International Space Station is retired and deorbited as planned, China could become the only nation operating a space station in orbit. Hines added that China’s rapid progress in major space missions suggests it could even return to the moon ahead of the United States.