A Chinese astronaut for the upcoming Shenzhou-16 mission Jing Haipeng during a meeting at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center. Photo / AP
A Chinese astronaut for the upcoming Shenzhou-16 mission Jing Haipeng during a meeting at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center. Photo / AP
China’s burgeoning space programme plans to place astronauts on the moon before 2030 and expand the country’s orbiting space station, officials said.
Monday’s announcement comes against the background of a rivalry with the US for reaching new milestones in outer space, reflecting their competition for influence on global events.
Thathas conjured up memories of the space race between the US and the former Soviet Union in the 1960s and 1970s, although American spending, supply chains and capabilities are believed to give it a significant edge over China, at least for the present.
The China space program is far more advanced than most people realize
The US aims to put astronauts back on the lunar surface by the end of 2025 as part of a renewed commitment to crewed missions, aided by private sector players such as SpaceX and Blue Origin.
The deputy director of China’s space agency confirmed the twin objectives at a news conference but gave no specific dates.
The agency also introduced three astronauts who will head to the country’s space station in a launch scheduled for Tuesday morning. They’ll replace a crew that’s been on the orbiting station for six months.
Chinese astronauts for the upcoming Shenzhou-16 mission (from left), Gui Haichao, Jing Haipeng, and Zhu Yangzhu. Photo / Mark Schiefelbein, AP
China is first preparing for a “short stay on the lunar surface and human-robotic joint exploration”, Deputy Director of the Chinese Manned Space Agency Lin Xiqiang told reporters at the rare briefing by the military-run programme.
“We have a complete near-Earth human space station and human round-trip transportation system,” complemented by a process for selecting, training and supporting new astronauts, he said. A schedule of two crewed missions a year is “sufficient for carrying out our objectives”, Lin said.
The Tiangong space station was said to have been finished in November when the third section was added.
A fourth module will be launched “at an appropriate time to advance support for scientific experiments and provide the crew with improved working and living conditions”, Lin said.
Deputy director of the Chinese Manned Space Agency Lin Xiqiang. Photo / AP
The trio being launched aboard the Shenzhou 16 craft will overlap briefly with the three astronauts who have lived on the station for the previous six months conducting experiments and assembling equipment inside and outside the vehicle.
The fresh crew includes a civilian for the first time. All previous crew members have been in the People’s Liberation Army, the military wing of the country’s ruling Communist Party.
Gui Haichao, a professor at Beijing’s top aerospace research institute, will join mission commander Jing Haipeng and spacecraft engineer Zhu Yangzhu as the payload expert.
Speaking to the media at the launch site outside the northwestern city of Jiuquan, Jing said the mission marked “a new stage of application and development” in China’s space programme.
“We firmly believe that the spring of China’s space science has arrived, and we have the determination, confidence, and ability to resolutely complete the mission,” said Jing, a major general who has made three previous space flights.
Staff members take photos of a billboard depicting Chinese astronauts at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center. Photo / AP
China’s first manned space mission in 2003 made it the third country after the USSR and the US to put a person into space.
China built its own space station after it was excluded from the International Space Station, largely due to US objections over the Chinese space programmes’ intimate ties to the PLA.
Space is increasingly seen as a new area of competition between China and the United States — the world’s two largest economies and rivals for diplomatic and military influence — one a highly centralised, one party state, the other a democracy where the partisan divide largely evaporates over the issues of relations with China and space exploration.
The astronauts NASA sends to the moon by the end of 2025 will aim for the south pole where permanently shadowed craters are believed to be packed with frozen water.
Plans for permanent crewed bases on the moon are also being considered by both countries, raising questions about rights and interests on the lunar surface. US law tightly restricts cooperation between the two countries’ space programmes and, while China says it welcomes foreign collaborations, those have thus far been limited to scientific research.
A staff member takes a smartphone photo of Chinese astronauts for the upcoming Shenzhou-16 mission. Photo / AP
Speaking Monday afternoon in Jiuquan, the technology director of the Chinese crewed space flight agency, Li Yingliang, said China hoped for more international collaboration, including with the US.
“Our country’s consistent stance is that as long as the goal is to utilise space for peaceful purposes, we are willing to cooperate and communicate with any country or aerospace organisation,” Li said.
“Personally, I regret that the US Congress has relevant motions banning cooperation in aerospace between the US and China. I very much regret that personally,” he said.
In addition to their lunar programmes, the US and China have also landed rovers on Mars and Beijing plans to follow the US in landing a spacecraft on an asteroid.
Other countries and organisations ranging from India and the United Arab Emirates to Israel and the European Union are also planning lunar missions.
China's space programme plans to land astronauts on the moon before 2030, a top official with the country's space programme said. Photo / AP
The US sent six crewed missions to the moon between 1969 and 1972, three of which involved the use of a drivable lunar rover that China says it is now developing with tenders in the private sector.
While America currently operates more spaceports and has a far wider network of international and commercial partners than China, the Chinese programme has proceeded in a steady and cautious manner reflecting the county’s vast increase in economic power and global influence since the 1980s.
