With China's Chang'e 5 rocket launch, which landed on the moon on December 1 and deposited a capsule in Inner Mongolia early in the morning on December 17 Beijing time after a 23 day voyage to the moon and back, the long US-Russian domination of space has a major challenger. The issues extend beyond national pride to a global leadership initiative in rocketry whose implications extend to military, economic and diverse scientific applications at a time of mounting US-China rivalry in all spheres.