****Space.com LINK to story.
Posted on 11/23/2001 1:00:35 PM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
While building its space programs, China is also concerned that space could become an expensive battleground in any future conflict. Beijing is especially unhappy with U.S. plans to build systems to shield the United States from missile attack. (snip) ``Another arms race in outer space has begun since 1998, and we should be watchful,'' Huang said.
BEIJING (AP) - Citing military concerns and saying space exploration will become ``as essential as electricity,'' China announced plans to send a man into space by 2005 and, eventually, head for the moon.
China also will launch three satellites next year to monitor weather, study oceans and search for resources on earth, the official China Daily newspaper said Friday.
Senior officials said China's presence in space and its developing space program - long a secretive affair, but also an endeavor that the government has framed as a symbol of national prestige - will be well-established within three years.
``China has put the plan for developing the industry on the table,'' the China Daily quoted Sun Laiyan, vice director of the China National Space Administration, as saying Thursday.
The newspaper gave no details about the moon-shot and no firm date for manned spaceflight, other than ``before 2005.'' Space Administration spokesman Liu Xiaohong, reached by phone Friday, would not elaborate on China's plans.
But the official Xinhua News Agency, citing the head of the Space Administration, last month said the moon probe was part of China's ``struggle for a more important place in the world space science field.''
``For mankind in the 21st century, space application will become as essential as electricity and oil in the 19th century,'' the China Daily quoted Liang Sili, a space scientist, as saying.
He said more unmanned tests were needed before a manned launch. ``We must be sure that the astronauts are 100 percent safe in outer space,'' Liang was quoted as saying.
Like the United States in the 1960s, China has used the prospect of reaching for the stars as a motivating force for patriotism. Xinhua earlier this year praised lunar exploration as having an ``immeasurable usefulness to raising national prestige and inspiring the nationalistic spirit.''
China successfully launched unmanned Shenzhou, or ``Sacred Vessel,'' spacecraft on Long March rockets in 1999 and this year - pushing forward Chinese plans to join the United States and Russia as the only countries to have launched manned vessels.
While building its space programs, China is also concerned that space could become an expensive battleground in any future conflict. Beijing is especially unhappy with U.S. plans to build systems to shield the United States from missile attack.
``Some powers in the world are on the way to militarizing outer space, not peacefully exploring,'' the China Daily quoted Chinese Foreign Ministry official Huang Huikang, who has worked with other nations' space programs, as saying.
``Another arms race in outer space has begun since 1998, and we should be watchful,'' Huang said.
Lunar Base now!
The learning curve won't be hard for China. As we have already seen, they have pilfered or been given everything want.
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China, space is the place, vows race
Drudge Report 11-21-01
CHINA VOWS SPACE RACE Thu Nov 22 2001 10:29:59 ET BEIJING -- XINHUA -- China is speeding up its aerospace industry and plans to launch more projects concerning rockets, satellites, spacecraft, exploration of planets and outer space, according to a senior aerospace official.
Luan Enjie, director of the State Aerospace Bureau, said Thursday at a meeting that his bureau will push the development of space technology, space utilization and space science in civil sectors, promoting the country's economic and social development and national defense. The meeting was held to mark the first anniversary of the release of the White Paper on China's Aerospace Development.
China has achieved outstanding results in many space programs, including launching satellites and rockets, and outer space exploration. Meanwhile, space technology has produced tools which are transforming weather forecasting, environmental protection, humanitarian assistance, education, medicine, agriculture and a wide range of other activities.
At present, China's research on recoverable satellites, soft-landing technology and micro-gravitation has entered a more mature testing stage. China is now carrying out space breeding and life resources observation. In the field of space physics, China has set up a small ground-level laboratory to study physical changes in the universe under artificial high-temperatures and densities by means of laser induced plasma.
The country plans to send an additional 30 satellites into outer space in the next five years with the aim of accelerating the development of the space industry, according to bureau sources. The satellites, with improved quality and function, will be used in fields such as telecommunications, weather forecasting, environmental protection and navigation.
New carrier rockets, satellites and even manned space flights will be the development priorities of China's space industry in the early years of the 21st century. On top of the agenda will be a new-type carrier rocket which is not only more powerful but also environmentally-friendly, said Min, a member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Chinese Academy of Engineering.
Efforts will also focus on the development of new types of remote-sensing, communications and navigation satellites, in addition to manned space flight. To date, China has successfully developed and launched 48 satellites, with a success rate of 90 percent. China launched and recovered its second unmanned spacecraft, the Shenzhou II, earlier this year following its maiden space flight in late 1999.
China is also preparing to carry out manned flights, Luan said. As outer space exploration inspires people and leads to technologies that can benefit all people, China will continue to support outer space research and cooperation with other countries in this field, including a planet-probe program with the European Space Agency and cooperation on two earth resources satellites with Brazil, according to Luan. Data from China's self-developed resources satellite and meteorological satellite have become an indispensable part of the data bank of the international satellite network shared by all countries.
China's exploration and utilization of space, the so-called "fourth frontier" of mankind, has been encouraging and promising as the country is improving its aerospace technology and the national strength. Experts claim that the increasing population and the decreasing resources on the earth have made it necessary to seek new living space and resources in outer space.
China's space research will focus on the moon and outer space, Luan disclosed at the China Industrial Hi-tech Forum last October. His bureau has just launched a project cooperating with its European counterpart to make breakthroughs in exploring the moon in the next decade or longer. The plan was initially made public when the Chinese government released the White Paper.
According to the plan, China will launch moon probes from Long March carrier rockets on the basis of applied technology development. Since the launch of its first man-made satellite in 1971, China has established itself near the top in the world in terms of aerospace technology, with a full set of carrier rockets and applied satellites, and a related research and development center and production base. [END]
Say what you want about Bill Clinton, he does, at least, pay back those who support him.
Imal
And China had better come in peace for all mankind.
By the time China gets to the moon, the U.S. will be in solid alliance with Russia, India, and the NATO nations. And if China "acts nice" we might let her join the club.
If there were any justice in these United States, clinon would be standing in front of a firing squard, having been found guilty of treason by a militray tribunal.
Nukem
Remember all those Liberals who shrugged off the loss of the Panama Canal? The Chinese bases in the Bahamas? The giving away of military secrets?
They are responsible for the September 11 attack! And they are responsible for the Aegean Stables mess! They--not the Chinese--are the greatest threat to America and world peace!
We can handle all threats from without.
It is threats from within, especially Liberalism, i.e. decadence, that are the real threat.
I wouldn't mind dropping all those black berets we bought from them.
Yeah, right! Like they really believe in the individual in communist countries.
9 years ago the Chinese were still trying to perfect a kite. Now they're talking about launching a Starship??
A big thanks to Bubba Clinton -- Al Capone would be proud of him.
And let's not forget all those aiders and abetters -- the Democratic House and Senate, who turned a blind eye and ear to overt bribes, payoffs, and give-aways of nuclear and computer tecnology secrets.
Still -- WHERE IS THE OUTRAGE? Spies have walked in through the front door of our American "house" and walked out with a big-screen TV, our gun, and the kids piggy bank!
WHEN DOES THE ATTORNEY GENERAL ASHCROFT'S INVESTIGATE BEGIN??
For those who accept that premise, it is vital that we get the space shuttle flying again as safely and as quickly as possible. Our very future may depend on it.
To not understand or acknowledge that Earth is but a stepping stone for humankind is to ignore history, reality and Manifest Destiny. Through age, natural catastrophe or by our own hand, life on Earth has a finite amount of time left. For the human species to go on, we must go out into the far and promising reaches of space. We will do this, or we will eventually perish on the stepping stone adjacent to endless possibilities and salvation.
....Human space flight is not a luxury, and the People's Republic of China, above all others, seems to recognize that. The PRC is poised to launch its first astronauts, and with them launch potentially the most ambitious plan ever for humans in space.
They have their eyes on the moon, Mars and beyond. The question for our country is: Do we cede the future of human space flight, and the future in general, to them or another nation?***
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