Even if some of us were not yet born when the whole Space Race was taking place, we did hear about it. This famous race took place during the Cold War, where the USA and the Soviet Union (USSR)—sworn rivals at the time—were absolutely determined on one-upping each other in space exploration, research, and achievement, each vying to become the space superpower. The Space Race started in 1955 and was over by 1991, producing many great achievements for both USA and Russia, who until now have great presence in space explorations. One variant, however, is that they are no longer the only parties in the race, having long been joined by China, Europe, India and Japan.
China was late to the game, where its space program was established in the 1950s and their first satellite was launched in the 1970s. However, it was not until 2003 that they were able to send a manned space mission, which made them the third country to successfully do so. Whilst they had a slow start, in 2011 they overtook the USA in regard to numbers of launches per year; they also have the second best figure for successful launches, coming second to Europe. “They are just taking a very different approach than the USA did. We launched a lot; they only launch every three years or so, but take a very big step forward with each launch”, said
Joan Johnson–Freese, Professor at the US Naval War College.
The China National Space Administration has many long-term goals. One of the goals is to improve their standing in the world of space science, which they have been following by recently welcoming international collaborations, and working together with other space agencies such as the European Space Agency (ESA). Another goal down the line that China wants to achieve is to send a robotic mission to the dark side of the Moon, before sending a manned mission to the Moon by 2030.
They also plan to establish a crewed space station. There are three working space stations in orbit; the International Space Station (ISS), and two Chinese space stations: Tiangong-1 and Tiangong-2 (launched in 2016). These stations are assembled and built over time as each manned mission arrives and adds to it. They are there for astronauts to study the effect of long-term space habitation on the human body, how they can plant food in space, study space phenomenon and carry out experiments that can only be carried out in space.
While the Chinese space stations are not always manned, unlike the ISS, it is an eventual goal for the Chinese. China has also signed an agreement with the UN Office for Outer Space Affairs to allow the station to be used by astronauts from UN Member States. This will allow astronauts to carry out research, especially those who come from developing countries that find space exploration too expensive to carry out on their own.
One of the reasons China is so intent on making its mark in the space exploration field is, as Wang Chi of the National Space Science Center said: “With the development of the Chinese space program, we are trying to make contributions to human knowledge about the universe”. While this is admirable, the fact that making your mark in space is also a matter of prestige and signals that you are a country of immense power, which was actually one of the driving forces behind the earlier Space Race, cannot be overlooked.
It is no surprise, thus, that China spends around USD six billion dollars per year on its space program; it is incomparable with the USA, which spends USD forty billion dollars yearly. However, if we were to compare a different set of numbers, perhaps we will see why spending large amounts of money is not always the best of strategy; the USA made only 19 successful space launches in 2013, compared with China’s 14 and Russia’s 31. This shows that the Chinese work with great efficiency; compared to what they have achieved so far, their trajectory for the future looks as bright as the stars they are reaching for.
References
theguardian.com
nbcnews.com
nytimes.com
space.com
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