China Plans for Big Year in Space

By Nancy Atkinson - January 8, 2008 at 8:12 AM UTC | Space Policy
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China is hoping to launch 15 rockets, 17 satellites and its third manned mission in 2008. This is an ambitious manifest for any country, and it appears China hopes to take its global emergence to new heights in a year in which it will also host the summer Olympics.

No details were provided regarding specific dates or the types of unmanned missions that will be launched this year. The secretary-general of the Commission of Science Technology and Industry for National Defence, Huang Qiang, revealed the planned launches at a news conference on January 7, according to the official Xinhua news agency.

However, Chinese media reported earlier that the China National Space Administration plans to launch its third manned mission, Shenzhou VII sometime in October, and reportedly the mission will include a space walk. In 2003, China became only the third country to put a human into space using its own rocket, following the former Soviet Union and the United States, and in 2005 the Shenzhou VI rocket sent two Chinese astronauts on a five-day flight.

Xinhua quoted Huang as saying the Shenzhou VII was a major task for the year and called for full cooperation between all departments involved.

China successfully launched its first lunar probe, Chang'e 1 in October 2007. The spacecraft is now successfully in lunar orbit and it returned its first images of the lunar surface in late November 2007. Chang'e 1 is also obtaining 3-D pictures of the moon and mapping surface elements. This was the beginning of their "step by step" program of exploring the moon. China hopes to deploy a lunar lander for surface exploration of the moon in 2012, and attempt a lunar sample return mission in 2017.

China will also mount a joint effort with Russia to explore Mars in 2009.

Original News Source:

Reuters

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson is a space journalist and author with a passion for telling the stories of people involved in space exploration and astronomy. She is currently retired from daily writing, but worked at Universe Today for 20 years as a writer and editor. She also contributed articles to The Planetary Society, Ad Astra (National Space Society), New Scientist and many other online outlets.

Her 2019 book, "Eight Years to the Moon: The History of the Apollo Missions,” shares the untold stories of engineers and scientists who worked behind the scenes to make the Apollo program so successful, despite the daunting odds against it. Her first book “Incredible Stories From Space: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Missions Changing Our View of the Cosmos” (2016) tells the stories of 37 scientists and engineers that work on several current NASA robotic missions to explore the solar system and beyond.

Nancy is also a NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador, and through this program, she has the opportunity to share her passion of space and astronomy with children and adults through presentations and programs. Nancy's personal website is nancyatkinson.com