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Space Programme
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Since sending its first manmade satellite into the space in 1970, China has made tremendous progress in its space programme. By 23 December 2008, it had conducted 115 launches, of which 103 were completely successful and four were partially successful. In 2003, the PRC successfully launched its first manned spacecraft ShenZhou 5, thus making it the third country in the world, after Russia and the Unite States, to be capable of sending human into the Earth orbit independently. This was followed by another two manned spaceflight missions in 2005 and 2008 respectively, sending another five astronauts into the orbit.
China’s space programme was born in the late 1960s along with its long-range ballistic missile programme. Its first space launch vehicle ChangZheng 1 was based on the DongFeng 4 (CSS-3) intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM). The current ChangZheng 2, 3 and 4 launcher families were all developed from the DongFeng 5 (CSS-4) intercontinental-range ballistic missile (ICBM) technology. The new-generation heavy-load launcher ChangZheng 5, which employs the cleaner LOX/LH2 and LOX/Kerosene propellant, is expected to enter service by 2014.
China has launched a range of communications, weather, remote sensing, navigation, and scientific satellites, so of which are believed to be for military purposes or dual-use. China entered the international space launch market in the early 1990s, but its launch service suffered a series of severe failures between 1992 and 1996. These setbacks, coupled with the difficulties in obtaining export license for U.S.-made communications satellites, had forced China almost completely out of the international launch market by the end of the 1990s. In recent years, China has been trying to re-enter the international market by offering service packages that include satellite development, launch service and even finance to third-world countries such as Nigeria and Venezuela, which do not have the ability to purchase expensive Western-made satellites.
China ‘s human spaceflight programme began in 1992. Following its initial success in the ShenZhou 5, 6 and 7 missions, China is now working on the space rendezvous docking technology, which will be tested in the next flight mission scheduled in 2010. Once successful, China will be operating a temporarily man-tended space lab by 2012. China also has an active lunar exploration programme, which successfully sent an orbitor to the Moon in 2007. In the next phase, it is planning to send an unmanned spacecraft to land on the Moon surface by 2012~2014. This will finally lead to an automated spacecraft to land on the Moon, collect samples, and then return to the Earth in the third phase of the programme. A long term goal of China’s space programme is to send Chinese astronauts to the Moon by 2025.
Over the years, China has developed a comprehensive network of facilities for space R&D, manufacturing, launching, tracking, monitoring, controlling, and recovering. It operates three satellite launch centres for LEO, SSO, and GTO missions respectively. A new launch centre currently under construction on the southern island of Hainan is scheduled to become operational by 2012. China has a number of land-based space tracking stations both in domestic and overseas. They are complemented by five space tracking ships which can be deployed around the globe before the launch mission. China is also developing a space-based data relay satellite network, with the first satellite launched in 2008.
Chinese officials routinely denied any military nature of its space programme, and called for using space for peaceful purposes. China is also an active advocator along with Russia for a complete ban of weapon in space. However, China is known to have launched reconnaissance satellites for both civil and military uses. In January 2007, China carried out a highly controversial anti-satellite (ASAT) weapon test, using a ballistic missile carrying a kinetic kill vehicle to shoot down one of its retired weather satellite FengYun 1C. The Pentagon reports to the U.S. Congress also suggested the China may be developing systems intended to jam U.S. navigation satellite signals, and ground-based lasers to damage optical sensors on reconnaissance satellites. |
