{"id":775535,"date":"2023-12-14T05:07:54","date_gmt":"2023-12-14T10:07:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/?p=775535"},"modified":"2023-12-14T05:07:54","modified_gmt":"2023-12-14T10:07:54","slug":"chinas-space-program-five-things-to-know","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/?p=775535","title":{"rendered":"China’s space program: Five things to know"},"content":{"rendered":"


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\n Chang’e-3, which carried a robotic rover, was China’s first landing on the Moon.
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When Chang’e-3 became the first Chinese craft to land on the moon 10 years ago, it kicked off nationwide celebrations\u2014and a decade of major successes for a rapidly accelerating space program.<\/p>\n

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Since the December 14, 2013 landing, China has built a crewed space station, sent a robotic rover to Mars and become the first nation to make a controlled landing on the far side of the moon.<\/p>\n

President Xi Jinping has described building China into a space power as “our eternal dream”.<\/p>\n

Here are five things to know about this space program:<\/p>\n

A slow start<\/h2>\n

Chinese leader Mao Zedong declared his nation’s space ambitions soon after the Soviet Union launched the world’s first satellite, Sputnik 1, in 1957.<\/p>\n

It took 13 years for China to launch its first satellite Dong Fang Hong, or “The East is Red”\u2014named after the famous Communist revolutionary song it broadcast from orbit.<\/p>\n

It was not until the late 1980s that the program began to pick up pace, alongside China’s ascent into the world’s richest and most powerful nations.<\/p>\n

Overseen by the military, its secretive space program’s goals became more ambitious. In 1992, it formally began a project to send humans into space.<\/p>\n

‘Taikonauts’<\/h2>\n

More than three decades after its first satellite launch, on October 15, 2003, Yang Liwei became the first Chinese to travel into space, and an instant national hero.<\/p>\n

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\n China regularly launches astronauts to its Tiangong space station.
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With the success of his Shenzhou 5 mission, China became only the third nation after the United States and Russia to demonstrate the ability to launch humans into space.<\/p>\n

In total, 20 Chinese astronauts have made the journey into space, including two women. State media have used the term “taikonaut” to describe China’s spacefarers.<\/p>\n

Many of them have journeyed to Tiangong, China’s first long-term space station whose construction was completed last year.<\/p>\n

Though much smaller than the International Space Station, it contains living quarters for a rotating crew, robotic arms and airlocks for conducting spacewalks.<\/p>\n

To the moon<\/h2>\n

China has also sent exploration missions to the moon.<\/p>\n

Named after the moon goddess in Chinese folklore, Chang’e-3 touched down on the surface in 2013, making China only the third nation to successfully land there.<\/p>\n

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\n China was the first nation to make a controlled landing on the far side of the Moon.
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Two other milestones followed. In 2019, China became the first nation to make a controlled landing on the far side of the moon with Chang’e-4.<\/p>\n

A year later, Chang’e-5 brought the first lunar samples to Earth in more than 40 years.<\/p>\n

Chinese space authorities have said they plan to land humans on the moon by 2030, as well as build a lunar base.<\/p>\n

Mars and deep space<\/h2>\n

One of the most spectacular successes of the Chinese space program came in 2021 when its Tianwen-1 mission landed a rover named Zhurong on the surface of Mars.<\/p>\n

China is only the second nation after the United States to put a robotic rover on the Red Planet.<\/p>\n

Officials have said they aim to send a crewed mission there by 2033.<\/p>\n

Aside from landers and orbiters, China is soon expected to launch a space telescope named Xuntian.<\/p>\n

Orbiting close to the Tiangong space station, with which it can dock, Xuntian is expected to have a field of view far greater than NASA’s Hubble telescope.<\/p>\n