You pile quite a number of words on the first Chinese in space (“Congratulations, China,” “Great Leap Upward,” and “Ground Control to Colonel Yang,” October 18, 2003), but you fail to find a single nice word about the long-term objective of manned space missions: colonization of the solar system and beyond. In the long run, this is the only hope we have for survival. True, colonization of space still sounds like a utopian project, mainly on economic grounds, but China’s last launch offers yet another step in the right direction. With some luck, so many space programs around the globe will ultimately make this dream come true.