[FPSPACE] China space news: Own orbital station by 2020, manned lunar missions by 2030

[Peter Pesavento]

>From RIA Novosti (yes, the Russians of all people)

 

Also..has the Chinese lunar landing timetable been pushed back?  I dimly
thought it was to have been much earlier than 2030.

 

http://en.rian.ru/science/20090831/155972965.html

 

 

China to begin construction of orbital space station in 2020

 

13:5431/08/2009

BEIJING, August 31 (RIA Novosti) - China will begin the construction of its
own orbital space station in 2020, the Sina news service said on Monday,
citing a top official with the country's manned spaceflight program.

Gu Yidong said that China would sent two or three space labs into orbit in
2010-2015, while the basic module of the space station is to be orbited by
2020.

The spacecrafts will "form the basic orbital complex of the Chinese space
station" when docked together, he said.

According to earlier Chinese media reports, China plans to send a manned
mission to the Moon by 2030 and subsequently build a lunar base to send
missions to other planets in the Solar System, such as Mars. By 2050, China
plans to develop and launch a research probe to space bodies outside the
Solar System.

A Chinese astronaut conducted the country's first spacewalk last September,
making China the third country in the world after Russia and the United
States to send a man into open space.

 

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