Three Chinese astronauts began a six-month mission to work on the country’s new space station.
It is the latest step for China to become a space superpower in the coming decades.
What is the Tiangong Space Station?
Last year, China launched the first module of its Tiangong or “Heavenly Palace” space station into orbit .
Plans to add more modules, such as the Mengtian science lab, by the end of the year.
Next year it will launch a space telescope, called Xuntian. It will fly close to the space station and dock with it for maintenance and refueling.
Tiangong will have its own power, propulsion, life support and housing.
China is the third country in history that has put astronauts in space and has built a space station, after the Soviet Union (now Russia) and the United States.
- China launches the first module of its future space station
Beijing has high ambitions for Tiangong and hopes that will replace the International Space Station (ISS), which will cease operations in 2031.
Chinese astronauts are excluded from the ISS because US law prohibits their space agency, NASA, from sharing their data with China.
China’s plans to reach the Moon and Mars
China’s ambitions do not end there.
In a few years wants to take samples of asteroids near Earth.
For 2030, aims to have placed its first astronauts on the Moon and to have sent probes to collect samples from Mars and Jupiter.
What are other countries doing?
As China expands its role in space, several other countries also aspire to reach the Moon.
NASA plans to return to the satellite with astronauts from the US and other countries from 2025 and has already carried out tests for the launch of its new giant SLS rocket at the Kennedy Space Center.
Japan, South Korea, Russia , India and the United Arab Emirates are also working working on their own lunar missions.
India has already launched its second major mission to the Moon and wants to have its own space station for 2030.
Meanwhile, the European Space Agency, which is working with NASA on missions to the Moon, is also planning a network of lunar satellites to facilitate astronauts’ communication with Earth.
- China becomes the second country in history to plant its flag on the Moon
Who sets the rules of space?
The UN Outer Space Treaty of 1967 states that no place in space can be claimed by any nation.
The UN Moon Agreement of 1979 says that the space must not be e commercially exploited, but the US, China and Russia have refused to sign.
Now, the US is promoting its Artemis Agreements , which explain how nations can cooperatively exploit minerals from the Moon.
Russia and China will not sign the Accords, saying the United States has no right to set the rules for space.
What is China’s history in space?
China put its first satellite into orbit in 1970.
The only other powers that had gone into space at that stage were the USA, the Soviet Union, France and Japan.
In the last 10 years, China has launched more than 200 rockets.
Already sent an unmanned mission to the Moon, called Chang’e 5, to collect and return rock samples.
Planted a Chinese flag on the lunar surface, which was deliberately larger than previous American flags.
With the launch of Shenzhou , China has now put 14 astronauts in space, compared to 340 of the USA and those over 130 of the Soviet Union.
But there have been setbacks. In 2020, part of a Chinese rocket came off orbit and crashed into the Atlantic Ocean and two launches failed in 2020.
Who pays for the space program of China?
The Chinese state media Xinhua affirms that at least 340.10 people have worked on Chinese space projects, almost 10 times more than those currently working for NASA.
The China National Space Administration was created in 1970 with an initial annual budget of 2. million yuan (US$300 million).
However, in 2016, China opened its space industry to private companies, and now they are investing more than 10.000 million yuan (US$1.500 million dollars) to year, according to Chinese media.
Why does China want go to space?
China is interested in developing its satellite technology for telecommunications, air traffic management, weather forecasting, navigation and more.
But many of its satellites also have military purposes. They can help you spy on rival powers and guide long-range missiles.
Lucinda King, Space Project Manager s at the University of Portsmouth in the UK says China isn’t just focusing on high-profile space missions: “They’re prolific in all aspects of space. They have the political motivation and the resources to finance their planned programs.”
China’s missions to the Moon are motivated in part by opportunities to extract rare earth metals from its surface, such as lithium .
However, Professor Sa’id Mosteshar, Director of the Institute for Space Law and Policy at the University of London, says it would probably not be profitable for China to send repeated mining missions to the Moon.
The expert believes that China’s space program is driven more by the Asian nation’s desire to impress the rest of the world .
“It is a projection of power and a demonstration of technological progress”.
Additional reporting by Jeremy Howell and Tim Bowler.
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