ACEIZE Tracking the current state of Science and Technology

The attached 'article' from the Guardian declares that there is a new space race between India, China, and Iran. I put article in quotes because it is little more than a three paragraph summary of the space plans and achievements of those three nations.

It seems that the general idea behind this presumed space race is that all nations have plans for manned missions. Iran, seriously? Aceize also has 'plans' for manned space missions - does that put Aceize in this list of potential global Cinderella stories? Of course not. Iran has a satellite program, which puts them a few steps ahead of Aceize, but in my mostly ignorant opinion, it does not qualify them as a serious contender in the world of manned space flight.

Personally, I think China, Japan and India have some neat unmanned programs in the works. It's late and I have to rush to work, so I can't look up good examples, but I really liked China's moon mapping program.