I'm John Batchler. I welcome Henry Sikolsky, the executive director of the non-proliferation policy education

center. Nukes in orbit, nukes on the planet Earth, nooks in warheads, and nuclear power

plants on Earth, nuclear power plants on the moon. All of consideration. Henry, a very good day to you.

Welcome. I turn immediately to what appears to be an engineering

advanced by the Chinese space program, which itself is non-transparent because it's military,

it's not civilian. But in any event, there is a test said to be successful of a long March 10b. Why that is of note is not only

is it a big booster, but also it has ability to recover the first stage, similar to SpaceX.

The big booster part means that they're in the business of chasing their ambition of a colony or a base or a station

and an outpost or a fort on the surface of the moon.

How do you measure the Chinese advance of the Long March 10b?

They like to brag and boast before they've gone into production.

Good evening to you, Henry.

Good evening. Again, Henry. Good evening.

Again, it's terrific to be on your show.

Thank you for having me.

I think this latest piece of news with a videotape of a demonstration of this first stage coming back and being caught, if you will, in a net,

is very interesting from a number of angles. First, it suggests that you may not have to do

exactly what we're doing to accomplish the missions that we are accomplishing with higher

level technology aren't retrievable or if reusable systems land without a net catching them

because they're so precise they can do it without having to have a diaper, if you will, or a crutch of a big net to catch the item.

But it has the same result, which is you're saving that stage and reducing the costs for doing lots of launches.

Now, it isn't just that that's useful for going to the moon,

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