NASA cautions U.S. space program has mighty competitor in China

William Atkins
Tuesday, 26 February 2008 19:24

Science - Space

Microsoft Office 365

The opening statement of Dr. Griffin appears at the House Science and Technology Committee website "Griffin Testimony"

Even two years ago the ability of the Chinese was being written about in the media. Specifically, on April 10, 2006, The Space Review wrote an article, by Jeff Foust, commenting on the ability of the Chinese in space. Its article is “China, competition, and cooperation”

China became the third country to send a human into space when it did so in 2003. It sent astronaut Yang Liwei inside the Shenzhou V spacecraft into orbit, making fourteen orbits of the Earth.

Two years later it put two of its astronauts in space at the same time. They orbited the Earth inside Shenzhou VI for five days. In 2007, China sent an unmanned orbiter (Chang’e 1) to the Moon.

And, in 2008, China intends to launch three astronauts inside Shenzhou VII in which one of them will perform China’s first spacewalk. In all, in 2008, China intends to launch ten missions to space.

In 2008 or 2009 China intends to send an unmanned lunar lander (Chang’e 2) onto the lunar surface.

All of these activities are in preparation for its first manned mission (Chang’e 3) to the Moon, tentatively scheduled for 2017. The United States intends to send a manned mission to the Moon in 2018, one year after that date.

Another article about the advancements in the Chinese space program appears at The New York Times article “New Challengers Emerge, Threatening to Take the Lead”

The website of the China National Space Administration (CNSA), the agency responsible for China’s space program, is found at: http://www.cnsa.gov.cn/n615708/index.html (in Chinese) and http://www.cnsa.gov.cn/n615709/cindex.html (in English).