The Chinese Shenzhou 8 spacecraft landed back on Earth on Thursday night (China time) after being in space for two weeks. During its time orbiting Earth, the spacecraft remotely rendezvoused and docked with another orbiting Chinese spacecraft

The Phobos-Grunt mission has been delayed by two years in order to provide better reliability to the mission. When launched, it will go to Mars and its moon Phobos. Part of the spacecraft will return samples back to Earth.

According to a leader of the Chang'e 1 mission to the Moon, the Chinese have completed a high-resolution, three-dimensional map of the lunar surface. In fact, this mapping is the most detailed imaging of the Moon so far taken by any spacecraft of the entire lunar surface.

The Chinese space agency China National Space Administration (CNSA) began construction of its fourth space center on Monday, September 14, 2009. The Wenchang Satellite Launch Center is expected to greatly expand China's ability to launch heavier payloads into space.

On Sunday, March 1, 2009, the Chinese Chang'e 1 space probe ended a 16-month mission when ground controllers remotely performed a maneuver to direct  it toward the lunar surface. They were successful and the probe made a controlled crash into the Moon. Wham! Boom! Ting!

The Shenzhou VII (Shenzhou-7) re-entry module parachuted safety back to Earth with its three taikonauts (Chinese astronauts) onboard after making history with the first Chinese spacewalk.

The state-run Chinese news agency Xinhua reported on Saturday, September 27, 2008, that China conducted its first extra-vehicular activity (EVA) beginning at 4:43 p.m. Beijing, China time (0843 UTC). The spacewalk is the first one conducted by China.

China announced on Thursday, September 25, 2008, that its third manned spacecraft was launched at 9:10 p.m. local time from its Jiuguan Satellite Launch Center.

The NASA spacecraft Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) has taken stunning false-color, three-dimensional images of the small, irregularly shaped Mars’ moon Phobos using its HiRISE (High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment) camera.

On Wednesday, February 13, 2008, NASA administrator Dr. Michael Griffin spoke to the U.S. House of Representative's Science and Technology Committee about the advances made in the Chinese space program over the past few years—admitting that China is a major competitor of the United States.