[FPSPACE] China plans ten-plus space launches this year...up from previous

[Peter Pesavento]

>From Agency France Presse

 

http://rawstory.com/news/afp/China_set_to_launch_record_number_o_02192008.ht
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China set to launch record number of spacecraft in 2008: report

Published: Tuesday February 19, 2008

 

China will launch a record number of spacecraft this year, state media
reported Tuesday, amid a rise in tensions among world powers over the
militarisation of space.

China plans to send up more than 10 missions this year, said Yang Baohua,
head of the China Academy of Space Technology, according to the China Daily.

"China's space technology has entered a new stage. The design and
manufacture of satellites takes less time, and homemade satellites are more
reliable and have a longer lifespan," Yang said.

China has launched an average of eight spacecraft in the past two years,
according to the report.

The missions this year will include two Shenzhou VII spaceships -- one of
which will feature the country's first spacewalk -- two environmental
satellites and a communications satellite for Venezuela.

The news comes amid rising tensions between Russia, China and the United
States over the militarisation of space.

China and Russia have expressed concerns about a US plan to shoot down what
officials in Washington say is a crippled spy satellite, with that event to
take place potentially as early as this week.

Russia's defence ministry has said it fears the US plan is a veiled weapons
test and represents an "attempt to move the arms race into space", while
Washington has insisted it is merely trying to prevent it hitting Earth.

The United States, meanwhile, remains concerned over China's own satellite
destruction effort in January last year.

China used a ballistic missile to intercept and destroy one of its own
ageing weather satellites in low Earth orbit, becoming only the third nation
after the United States and the former Soviet Union to do so.

Adding to the tensions, Russia and China last week unveiled plans for a new
treaty banning the deployment of any weapons in space, but the United States
rejected the move as "impossible".

Washington is currently negotiating with Warsaw and Prague on the possible
installation of 10 interceptor missile sites in Poland by 2012 and
associated radar stations in the Czech Republic, as part of a missile
shield.