Authorities in charge of the manned space program unveiled plans on April 25 to build a 60-ton space station, made up of three capsules, and develop a cargo spaceship to transport supplies. The China Manned Space Engineering Office said at a news conference that it also wants the public to get involved by suggesting names for the space station, due to completed around 2020. According to documents provided by the office, the space station, weighing about 60 tons, is composed of a core module and two others where experiments will be conducted.
Low-altitude airspace will be opened for private flights in five to 10 years but industry insiders are reluctant to predict how many will be taking advantage of it, although they agree numbers will shoot up. “You should just let your imagination soar,” said Zhang Hongbiao, director of the science and technology committee of the Aviation Industry Corporation of China, the country’s major aircraft maker.
China successfully launched its eighth Beidou (Compass) navigation satellite, ensuring the basic system for its indigenous satellite navigation and positioning network is in place. Beidou is being developed to rival the United States-developed GPS, the European Union’s Galileo and Russia’s Global Navigation Satellite System, and is aimed at allowing travelers, drivers and military officials to accurately know their locations.
China plans to invest 1.5 trillion yuan ($228.2 billion) in the aviation industry, building 45 airports and adding 700 new commercial planes, over the next five years to meet surging demand, a top regulator said. The figure is half a trillion yuan more than that for the previous five years, Li Jiaxiang, head of the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC), told a news conference on Feb 24. By 2015, the country is expected to have 220 commercial airports and its fleet size will expand to more than 4,500 planes, according to Li.
A five-year scientific research program to prepare Chinese astronauts for long-term missions in space has been approved and will begin later this year, Director of the Astronaut Center of China Chen Shanguang said. The program aims to establish astronauts’ operational and decision-making abilities in space, along with any psychological and physical changes they undergo living in cramped compartments in weightless conditions, Chen told China Daily on Monday.
