China’s space program: Five things to know

When Chang’e-3 turned the primary Chinese language craft to land on the moon 10 years in the past, it kicked off nationwide celebrations—and a decade of main successes for a quickly accelerating space program.

Because the December 14, 2013 touchdown, China has constructed a crewed space station, despatched a robotic rover to Mars and turn out to be the primary nation to make a managed touchdown on the far aspect of the moon.

President Xi Jinping has described constructing China right into a space energy as “our everlasting dream”.

Listed here are 5 issues to learn about this space program:

A sluggish begin

Chinese language chief Mao Zedong declared his nation’s space ambitions quickly after the Soviet Union launched the world’s first satellite, Sputnik 1, in 1957.

It took 13 years for China to launch its first satellite Dong Fang Hong, or “The East is Crimson”—named after the well-known Communist revolutionary tune it broadcast from orbit.

It was not till the late Nineteen Eighties that this system started to select up tempo, alongside China’s ascent into the world’s richest and strongest nations.

Overseen by the army, its secretive space program’s objectives turned extra formidable. In 1992, it formally started a undertaking to ship people into space.

‘Taikonauts’

Greater than three many years after its first satellite launch, on October 15, 2003, Yang Liwei turned the primary Chinese language to journey into space, and an immediate nationwide hero.

With the success of his Shenzhou 5 mission, China turned solely the third nation after the USA and Russia to show the flexibility to launch people into space.

In total, 20 Chinese language astronauts have made the journey into space, together with two ladies. State media have used the time period “taikonaut” to explain China’s spacefarers.

A lot of them have journeyed to Tiangong, China’s first long-term space station whose development was accomplished final 12 months.

Although a lot smaller than the Worldwide Area Station, it accommodates residing quarters for a rotating crew, robotic arms and airlocks for conducting spacewalks.

To the moon

China has additionally despatched exploration missions to the moon.

Named after the moon goddess in Chinese language folklore, Chang’e-3 touched down on the floor in 2013, making China solely the third nation to efficiently land there.

Two different milestones adopted. In 2019, China turned the primary nation to make a managed touchdown on the far aspect of the moon with Chang’e-4.

A 12 months later, Chang’e-5 introduced the primary lunar samples to Earth in additional than 40 years.

Chinese language space authorities have mentioned they plan to land people on the moon by 2030, in addition to construct a lunar base.

Mars and deep space

One of the vital spectacular successes of the Chinese language space program got here in 2021 when its Tianwen-1 mission landed a rover named Zhurong on the floor of Mars.

China is just the second nation after the USA to place a robotic rover on the Crimson Planet.

Officers have mentioned they goal to ship a crewed mission there by 2033.

Other than landers and orbiters, China is quickly anticipated to launch a space telescope named Xuntian.

Orbiting near the Tiangong space station, with which it will probably dock, Xuntian is predicted to have a area of view far larger than NASA’s Hubble telescope.

Protection and status

Whereas China says it opposes the weaponisation of space, its policy makers have additionally recognized space as important to nationwide protection and safety.

Its army is a core participant within the nationwide space program, and China is creating spy satellites, anti-satellite missiles and digital warfare capabilities, in line with the US army.

China “sees counterspace operations as a method to discourage and counter a US intervention throughout a regional army battle”, the Pentagon mentioned in a report back to Congress this 12 months.

And past the direct functions of those applied sciences, China considers success in space as a significant driver of its picture as a worldwide energy at dwelling and overseas.

“Nationwide status is probably probably the most vital, if not an important, motives driving Chinese language space ambitions,” mentioned R. Lincoln Hines, an assistant professor on the Georgia Institute of Expertise in the USA.

“These symbols of accelerating worldwide standing present a robust type of home propaganda.”

© 2023 AFP