China’s space station, which made its silver screen debut in last year’s Oscar-winning film “Gravity,” will walk the real-life red carpet in 2022, a top Chinese space official said on Wednesday.
Yang Liwei, deputy chief of the China Manned Space Agency and the country’s first astronaut, announced the planned launch date for the space station along with a number of other timetables for the country’s ambitious space program during an gathering of astronauts and cosmonauts in Beijing.
In addition to the space station, China plans a second space lab around 2016 as well as spacecraft to dock with it, Mr. Yang said, according to a report by the official Xinhua news agency. Mr. Yang also said a new rocket-launch center in southern Hainan, set to be China’s fourth, is nearly complete and can already launch space vehicles.
It’s unclear whether the timetables are new. Last year, China cited 2015 as a target for the lab launch and 2020 as a possible date for completing the space station. China’s most recent White Paper on Space Activities, in 2011, wasn’t specific about dates for those programs.
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The Association of Space Explorers, where Mr. Yang is listed as this year’s meeting chairman and one of China’s four representatives, gathered 93 people from 18 countries with space experience for its planetary congress in Beijing. Participants included the first person to walk in space, Russian Alexey Leonov, the second to set foot on the moon, American Buzz Aldrin, and the first female astronaut, Russian Valentina Tereshkova.
China says its space program is peaceful. It reiterated that message earlier this month with the 192nd launch from its Long March rocket family that included a payload of two satellites in one rocket. And Mr. Yang highlighted how some Chinese systems are designed to maximize the possibility for international cooperation.
The life-saving role an imagined Tiangong space station plays in “Gravity”, in which Sandra Bullock plays an astronaut adrift, thrilled members of China’s space program, according to an earlier Xinhua report. “In my list, this is the best ever space film,” Xinhua quoted Liang Xiaohong, Communist Party chief of the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology, as saying.
The U.S. defense establishment continues to cast a wary eye on China’s space amibitions. The Defense Department noted in a report this year that “in parallel” to expanding space based intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, metrological and communications, China is “developing a multi-dimensional program to improve its capabilities to limit or prevent the use of space-based assets by adversaries during times of crisis or conflict.” Such concerns limit U.S. cooperation with China on space programs.
In addition to China’s Tiangong-2 space lab planned for around 2016, Mr. Yang said that around 2018 a core experimental space module will be launched ahead of the space station.
China launched its first space lab, Tiangong-1, in September 2011, and in June 2012, it docked with the manned Shenzhou-9 with three astronauts onboard. In June 2013, Shenzhou-10 docked with the lab and the three astronauts delivered a physics lesson onboard that was broadcast live to millions of Chinese students.
Once known as China’s first “taikonaut,” Mr. Yang made headlines around the world in 2003 after returned to earth aboard his Shenzhou-5 with the shock declaration, “I did not see our Great Wall,” shattering a myth it is the only man-made structure visible from outer space.
On Sunday, the international space men gathered in Beijing are offered a chance to actually visit the Great Wall. They’ll take a bus.
– James T. Areddy. Follow him on Twitter @jamestareddy
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Yang Liwei, deputy chief of the China Manned Space Agency and the country’s first astronaut, announced the planned launch date for the space station along with a number of other timetables for the country’s ambitious space program during an gathering of astronauts and cosmonauts in Beijing.
In addition to the space station, China plans a second space lab around 2016 as well as spacecraft to dock with it, Mr. Yang said, according to a report by the official Xinhua news agency. Mr. Yang also said a new rocket-launch center in southern Hainan, set to be China’s fourth, is nearly complete and can already launch space vehicles.
It’s unclear whether the timetables are new. Last year, China cited 2015 as a target for the lab launch and 2020 as a possible date for completing the space station. China’s most recent White Paper on Space Activities, in 2011, wasn’t specific about dates for those programs.
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The Association of Space Explorers, where Mr. Yang is listed as this year’s meeting chairman and one of China’s four representatives, gathered 93 people from 18 countries with space experience for its planetary congress in Beijing. Participants included the first person to walk in space, Russian Alexey Leonov, the second to set foot on the moon, American Buzz Aldrin, and the first female astronaut, Russian Valentina Tereshkova.
China says its space program is peaceful. It reiterated that message earlier this month with the 192nd launch from its Long March rocket family that included a payload of two satellites in one rocket. And Mr. Yang highlighted how some Chinese systems are designed to maximize the possibility for international cooperation.
The life-saving role an imagined Tiangong space station plays in “Gravity”, in which Sandra Bullock plays an astronaut adrift, thrilled members of China’s space program, according to an earlier Xinhua report. “In my list, this is the best ever space film,” Xinhua quoted Liang Xiaohong, Communist Party chief of the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology, as saying.
The U.S. defense establishment continues to cast a wary eye on China’s space amibitions. The Defense Department noted in a report this year that “in parallel” to expanding space based intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, metrological and communications, China is “developing a multi-dimensional program to improve its capabilities to limit or prevent the use of space-based assets by adversaries during times of crisis or conflict.” Such concerns limit U.S. cooperation with China on space programs.
In addition to China’s Tiangong-2 space lab planned for around 2016, Mr. Yang said that around 2018 a core experimental space module will be launched ahead of the space station.
China launched its first space lab, Tiangong-1, in September 2011, and in June 2012, it docked with the manned Shenzhou-9 with three astronauts onboard. In June 2013, Shenzhou-10 docked with the lab and the three astronauts delivered a physics lesson onboard that was broadcast live to millions of Chinese students.
Once known as China’s first “taikonaut,” Mr. Yang made headlines around the world in 2003 after returned to earth aboard his Shenzhou-5 with the shock declaration, “I did not see our Great Wall,” shattering a myth it is the only man-made structure visible from outer space.
On Sunday, the international space men gathered in Beijing are offered a chance to actually visit the Great Wall. They’ll take a bus.
– James T. Areddy. Follow him on Twitter @jamestareddy
_____________________________________
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