Not a single comment in the six hours since this momentous story was submitted about the feat of successfully building and launching the second of only two operational space stations orbiting the Earth: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_space_stations#Operati...

Curious.

Short CGTN video: “China launches 'Tianhe,' core module of space station ” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WHdkt9ncb9M

Context. “Since 2011, the United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has excluded the Chinese government or any organisations affiliated with China in any capacity, even non-political, from its activities, including using funds to host Chinese visitors at NASA facilities.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China_exclusion_policy_of_NASA

Ten years later China launches the core module of its own space station. Necessity being the mother of invention.

For the HN crowd. In 2020 the US blocks the transfer of high tech semiconductors and semiconductor equipment to SMIC and Huawei – puts them and other companies on the benign sounding Entity List: https://eandt.theiet.org/content/articles/2020/12/smic-and-d...

Prediction. By 2030 China will have its own 5nm and 3nm fabs.