Space station top 2021 priority
▶ Nation’s launches, payload weight 2nd only to US
China plans to conduct more than 40 space launches in 2021, with the construction of the country’s first space station as its top priority, leading domestic rocket contractor China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp ( CASC) said on Wednesday.
In the 2020 Blue Book of China Aerospace Science and Technology Activities issued at a press conference on Wednesday, CASC said parts of the space station, including the Tianhe core cabinet, the Tianzhou- 2 and - 3 cargo spaceships, and the Shenzhou- 12 and - 13 manned spacecraft, will be sent into space in 2021.
Another seven commercial launches are planned, which will be open to market users wishing to send micro- sized and small satellites into space, the Blue Book said.
China carried out 39 launches in 2020, sending 89 spacecraft into space and breaking the record for total weight at 103.06 tons, a 29.3- percent increase from the previous year.
China’s number of space launches and weight of payloads in 2020 both ranked second in the world after the US, marking major strides forward in
China’s space exploration.
China’s latest state- of- the- art carrier rocket, the Long March- 5B, made a successful maiden flight in May, sending the assembly of a trial version of the next- generation manned spaceship with a test cargo- returning spacecraft into planned orbit.
China embarked on voyages to the moon and Mars in 2020.
The country’s first Mars exploration project, Tianwen- 1, which has a triple mission of orbiting, landing and roving in one flight, embarked on a journey to the Red Planet on July 23, 2020.
After flying in space for 215 days, which took it some 212 million kilometers from Earth, it successfully entered the Martian orbit on Wednesday and will remain there for another three months, with all payloads powered on for scientific study, before eventually touching down, the Global Times learned from China’s National Space Administration.
Impressive as the achievements are, Chinese space analysts note that there remain some technological gaps in the field compared with the US. Song Zhongping, an aerospace expert and TV commentator, said that the US is still the leading force in the global space exploration race.
“Beginning in the 1960s, the US got a head start. Thanks to a relatively strong scientific base that laid the groundwork for aerospace development, the US has formed a more mature, balanced mode with NASA leading the national space programs and Elon Musk spearheading the drive in commercial areas of the aerospace industry.”
However, he noted that China has developed its own path, different from the US. “We drew the blueprint for future space missions as a whole and then divided it into parts, which will be realized step by step in a steady manner.”