Editorial by The Sankei Shimbun July 22, 2021 (japan-forward.com)
• In May 2020, in response to the ongoing militarization of space by China and Russia, Japan’s ‘Self-Defense Force’ launched its ‘Space Operations Squadron’ and revised its “Ensuring Space Security” policy to cooperate with the United States in enhancing its deterrence capabilities in space.
Article from Agence-France Presse July 4, 2021 (theguardian.com)
• In June, three Chinese astronauts blasted off to become the first crew of the new Tiangong space station in orbit around Earth, where they will remain for three months in China’s longest crewed mission to date. On July 4th, two of the astronauts conducted the first of two seven-hour spacewalks to work on assembling the Tiangong space station. Fueled in part by a U.S. ban on Chinese astronauts on the International Space Station, the construction of the Tiangong space station is a significant step in China’s ambitious space program.
• China previously landed a rover on Mars and sent probes to the Moon. This is China’s first crewed mission into space in nearly five years, and the first time since 2008 that Chinese astronauts have gone outside their spacecraft. China is the third country to complete a spacewalk after the Soviet Union and the US. This is a matter of huge prestige as the country marks the 100th anniversary of the ruling Communist party this month with a massive propaganda campaign.
• In this first spacewalk, astronauts Liu Boming and Tang Hongbo were tasked with elevating a panoramic camera outside the Tianhe core module and testing the station’s robotic arm which will be used to transfer future modules around the station. The astronauts also installed foot stops on the robotic arm and carried out other assembly work. The crew underwent more than 6,000 hours of training in preparation.
• In a video clip, Liu and Tang were shown opening a hatch and exiting the module separately, wearing newly developed suits. They were supported from inside the station by the mission commander, Nie Haisheng, a decorated air force pilot who is on his third space mission. The video clip showed Liu leaving the cabin, exclaiming: “Wow, it’s too beautiful out here.” The Chinese space agency is planning a total of eleven launches through to the end of next year, including three more crewed missions. They will deliver two more lab modules to expand the station, along with supplies.
• Chinese state television showed footage of the astronauts’ daily lives on Tiangong, including setting up an exercise bike and working out on a treadmill. One crew member was shown eating with chopsticks; another did a handstand and somersault after mealtime. The televised spacewalk garnered 200 million views on China’s social media platform Weibo. One user wrote: “How much I’m moved by each step of achievement is beyond words.”
• President Xi Jinping has said the construction of China’s first space station is opening “new horizons” in humanity’s attempts to explore the cosmos. The Tiangong space station is expected to have a lifespan of at least ten years, and China has said it would be open to international collaboration on the station. The U.S.-run International Space Station is due for retirement after 2024, although NASA says it could remain functional beyond 2028.
Chinese astronauts have performed the country’s first tandem spacewalk,
working for seven hours on the outside of the new Tiangong station in orbit around Earth.
Tiangong’s construction is a significant step in China’s ambitious space programme. China has previously landed a rover on Mars and sent probes to the moon.
Last month, three astronauts blasted off to become the first crew of the station, where they will remain for three months in China’s longest crewed mission to date. On Sunday morning, two of them left the station for about seven hours of work in the 
first spacewalk at Tiangong, the China Manned Space Agency said.
“The safe return of astronauts Liu Boming and Tang Hongbo to the Tianhe core module marks the complete success of the first spacewalk in our country’s space station construction,” the agency said.
Their tasks included elevating a panoramic camera outside the Tianhe core module and testing the station’s robotic arm, which will be used to transfer future modules around the station, state media said. The astronauts installed foot stops on the robotic arm and, with its support, carried out other assembly work, the space agency added.
In a video clip of Liu leaving the cabin, he exclaimed: “Wow, it’s too beautiful out here.”
Liu and Tang were shown opening a hatch and exiting the module separately, wearing newly developed suits said to weigh 130kg (20st). They were supported from inside the station by the mission commander, Nie Haisheng, a decorated air force pilot who is on his third space mission.
This was the first of two spacewalks planned for the mission, both expected to last six or seven hours. It was the first time since 2008 that Chinese astronauts have gone outside their spacecraft. Back then, Zhai Zhigang made China the third country to complete a spacewalk after the Soviet Union and the US.
This is China’s first crewed mission in nearly five years, and a matter of huge prestige as the country marks the 100th anniversary of the ruling Communist party this month with a massive propaganda campaign. To prepare, the crew underwent more than 6,000 hours of training.
2:49 minute video pf first spacewalk on the Chinese space station,
July 4, 2021 (‘SciNews’ YouTube)
FAIR USE NOTICE: This page contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. ExoNews.org distributes this material for the purpose of news reporting, educational research, comment and criticism, constituting Fair Use under 17 U.S.C § 107. Please contact the Editor at ExoNews with any copyright issue.
Article by Janis Mackey Frayer June 17, 2021 (nbcnews.com)
• On June 17th, the Chinese Long March-2F rocket carrying the Shenzhou-12 capsule successfully launched from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the Gobi Desert, sending three astronauts on a historic mission to an orbiting space station that China is currently building. It was the first time in five years that China has sent humans into space. (see 1:07 minute video of launch below)
• Shenzhou-12, or “Divine Vessel,” is one of 11 planned missions to complete construction of China’s 70-ton ‘Tiangong’ or “Harmony of the Heavens” space station that should be up and running by next year. The astronauts will remain docked with the main Tianhe section of the station for three months to perform spacewalks, maintenance work and critical testing of life support and other systems.
• “I believe that in the near future, when the Chinese space station is complete, we will see Chinese and foreign astronauts taking on joint missions,” China Manned Space Agency Assistant Director Ji Qiming said at an earlier news conference. “Exploring the vast universe, developing space activities and building a powerful space nation is our unremitting space dream.”
• The 20 year-old International Space Station, or ISS, which has hosted astronauts from the U.S., Russia and a number of other countries is set to be decommissioned after 2024. China has long been frozen out of and ISS mission due to American concerns over the Chinese space program’s secrecy and connections to its own military. Moscow has hinted that it may withdraw from ISS cooperation in 2025, meaning China could be the only country with a functioning space station.
• The Russian space agency, Roscosmos, also signed an agreement in March with the Chinese National Space Administration to build a base on or around the Moon, which they will call the International Scientific Lunar Station. “All the firsts that the U.S. and the USSR did in the Cold War, China is just ticking them off,” said Jonathan McDowell, an astrophysicist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. “Now they’re at the point where they’re starting to think, ‘OK, we’re not just copying the West anymore, we’re going to start doing our own thing’. And that’s going to be very interesting to watch.”
• On the day before the launch, the three Chinese astronauts (pictured above) met with reporters from inside a germ-free glass chamber. Veteran Nie Haisheng, 56, was looking forward to his third trip to space, while Liu Boming, 54, took part in a 2011 mission that included China’s first spacewalk. They were joined by 40-year-old Tang Hongbo, who was looking forward to his first journey up to the stars, having been selected for training in 2010.
• After Tianhe’s main module was successfully launched last month, state media reported that President Xi Jinping wrote a letter to congratulate Chinese engineers for a breakthrough that earned a place in the nation’s history. NASA and others scolded Beijing for acting recklessly by allowing a rocket booster from that mission to fall to Earth in a seemingly uncontrolled manner.
• The Shenzhou-12’s launch was covered on state television and celebrated as a matter of prestige ahead of the Communist Party’s 100th anniversary next month. For Xi, the space station holds symbolic value in his vision of his country as “a space power in all respects.”
• But as China pours billions of dollars into its space programs, including an exploration of the dark side of the Moon and its recent landing of a rover on Mars, some analysts fear that its lack of international coordination is creating a dangerously competitive playing field in space. “There is no doubt the U.S. is the most advanced,” Zhou Jianping, the chief designer at China’s Manned Space Agency told NBC News. “Regardless of scale, China develops space programs out of our country’s own need … to fulfil our own dream.”
JIUQUAN, China — A Chinese rocket blasted off from a launch pad in the Gobi
Desert on Thursday, sending three astronauts on a historic mission to an orbiting space station China is building.
Fire and huge clouds of dust could be seen in the distance when the Long March-2F rocket carrying the Shenzhou-12 capsule roared away from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, as China’s space race with the United States and Russia continues to gather pace.
It was the first time in five years that China has sent humans into space.
For Rong Yi, the rocket’s chief designer, it was hard to see it go.
“We have invested so much energy,” she told NBC News, likening the rocket to raising a child. “But I am thrilled to see it fulfill its duty within 10 minutes.”
Shenzhou-12, or “Divine Vessel,” is one of 11 planned missions to complete
construction of China’s 70-ton Tiangong or Harmony of the Heavens space station that is set to be up and running by next year.
The astronauts will remain docked with the main Tianhe section of the station for three months — China’s longest crewed mission yet — to perform spacewalks, maintenance work and critical testing of life support and other systems.
“I believe that in the near future, when the Chinese space station is complete, we will see Chinese and foreign astronauts taking on joint missions,” China Manned Space Agency Assistant Director Ji Qiming said at a news conference Wednesday ahead of the launch.
“Exploring the vast universe, developing space activities and building a powerful space nation is our unremitting space dream,” he said.
China has long been frozen out of the International Space Station, or ISS, a project launched 20 years ago that has served as the ultimate expression of post-Cold War reconciliation between Russia and the United States. American concerns over the Chinese space program’s secrecy and connections to its military were largely responsible for that.
But the aging ISS that hosted astronauts from the U.S., Russia and a number of other countries is set to be decommissioned after 2024. As broader U.S.-Russia relations deteriorate, Moscow has hinted that it may withdraw from ISS cooperation in 2025, meaning China could be the only country with a functioning space station.
Roscosmos, the Russian space agency, also signed an agreement in March with the Chinese National Space Administration to build a base on or around the Moon, which they will call the International Scientific Lunar Station.
1:06 minute video of the launch of the Long March-2F rocket
carrying the Shenzhou-12 capsule (‘NBC News’ YouTube)
FAIR USE NOTICE: This page contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. ExoNews.org distributes this material for the purpose of news reporting, educational research, comment and criticism, constituting Fair Use under 17 U.S.C § 107. Please contact the Editor at ExoNews with any copyright issue.
Article by Arjun Kharpal December 4, 2020 (cnbc.com)
• The Chang’e-5 probe spacecraft (pictured above) that has been on the Moon collecting rock samples, launched from the Moon en route to the Earth, marking the first time that China has launched a spacecraft from an extraterrestrial body. China will be the third country in the world to retrieve lunar samples after the US did so in the 1960s and the Soviet Union in the 1970s.
• On December 3rd, the Chang’e-5 probe was successfully launched into a pre-determined orbit around the Moon. Chang’e-5 will meet with a return spacecraft to get back to Earth and is expected to land in China’s Inner Mongolia region around mid-December.
• China has ramped up its space efforts in the last few years. Earlier this year, President Xi Jinping urged the industry to make China a “great space power as soon as possible.” In June, China launched the final satellite to complete “Beidou”, its rival to the US government-owned Global Positioning System (GPS), which is widely used across the world. And in July, China also launched a mission to Mars called Tianwen -1.
GUANGZHOU, China — A Chinese spacecraft carrying lunar samples has blasted off from the moon and is preparing to come back to Earth.
It’s the first time China has launched a spacecraft from an extraterrestrial body and the first time it has collected moon samples. If the moon samples make it back to Earth, China will be only the third country in the world to retrieve lunar samples after the efforts by the U.S. in the 1960s and the Soviet Union in the 1970s.
At 23:10 p.m. Beijing time on Thursday, the Chang’e-5 spacecraft took off from the moon, according to the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation. The spacecraft was successfully launched into a pre-determined orbit around the moon.
The probe will meet with a return spacecraft to get back to Earth and is expected to land in China’s Inner Mongolia region around mid-December.
FAIR USE NOTICE: This page contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. ExoNews.org distributes this material for the purpose of news reporting, educational research, comment and criticism, constituting Fair Use under 17 U.S.C § 107. Please contact the Editor at ExoNews with any copyright issue.
Article by Jack Beyrer September 2, 2020 (freebeacon.com)
• In September 1st, the US Department of Defense (DoD) rolled out its ‘2020 China Military Power Report’. (see here) In assessing Beijing’s militarized space program’s capacity and long-term strategy, the Pentagon announced that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army has every intention of reaching “space great power status”.
• President Xi Jinping and the Chinese Communist leadership have developed a “space great power by every measurable yardstick that you can throw out there, not least of which is capacity for their military,” the DoD’s deputy assistant secretary of defense for China, Chad Sbragia, told the Washington Free Beacon.
• The DoD report concurs: “The PRC’s space enterprise continues to mature rapidly. Beijing has devoted significant resources to growing all aspects of its space program, from military space applications to civil applications such as profit-generating launches, scientific endeavors, and space exploration,” the report reads. “Its primary target is the United States.”
• China now boasts the second-largest fleet of satellites, regularly works with Russia on weapons development, and has launched a series of rockets and rovers as it takes aim at Mars. The report details China’s plans to have its own permanent space station by 2022 and a lunar surface research station by 2025. Significant portions of China’s missile warning and military communication networks will also reside in space.
• Such efforts have required the full thrust of Chinese Communist Party investment and commitment. “They have a very clear and definitive aspiration for becoming a global power preeminent by all measures, at least in terms of status, to any others. And space is not the least of that,” says Sbragia.
• Meanwhile in Washington, the 2018 National Defense Strategy (see here) explicitly outlines space as a potential “warfighting domain,” and calls for extensive investment in space-facing defensive capabilities. Donald Trump has promised to make Space Force a priority in his second term.
A top Pentagon official announced on Tuesday that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army is building its capacities
toward “space great power status.”
“When you listen to the Chinese Communist leadership—particularly Xi Jinping, who serves as the core of the party—he’s outlined very specific requirements and expectations,” Chad Sbragia, the deputy assistant secretary of defense for China, told the Washington Free Beacon. “Xi’s done the same in terms of having space great power status—and that’s being a space great power by every measurable yardstick that you can throw out there, not least of which is capacity for their military.”
Sbragia’s comments came at an American Enterprise Institute event rolling out the 2020 China Military Power Report. The report offers a bird’s-eye view assessment of China’s military capacities, as well as its long-term strategy and trajectory. It also details Beijing’s development of a militarized space program.
“The PRC’s space enterprise continues to mature rapidly. Beijing has devoted significant resources to growing all aspects of its space program, from military space applications to civil applications such as profit-generating launches, scientific endeavors, and space exploration,” the report reads. “Its primary target is the United States.”
FAIR USE NOTICE: This page contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. ExoNews.org distributes this material for the purpose of news reporting, educational research, comment and criticism, constituting Fair Use under 17 U.S.C § 107. Please contact the Editor at ExoNews with any copyright issue.