The rescue of the #astronauts stranded on the #Tiangong space station was a smooth, well-conducted, low-drama operation. Predictably, it's bringing out a bunch of #nationalist crap from #Russian and #American #fanboys. "Chinese-made garbage" etc.

I'm still enough of an idealist to cheer *any* successful human #spaceflight. If #China turns out to have built a better and longer-lasting space station than the increasingly rickety ISS, or gets humans back to the #Moon before the #US, or is first on #Mars ... well, maybe I'd rather see the Stars and Stripes than the Five-Star Red, but mainly I'll just be glad it's happening at all.

Every spacefaring nation has had accidents, some fatal. The test is in how they react. It looks to me like China passed this one with flying colors. That's all that matters.