Chinese space official lays out exploration plans

By Deborah Zabarenko

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A top Chinese space official on
Monday described China’s ambitious exploration plans, including
robotic Moon missions starting next year.

Beyond Moon missions, including a flight to collect and
return lunar samples to Earth in 2017, the Chinese space agency
plans to develop a nonpolluting launch vehicle that can lift
55,000 pounds (25,000 kg) into orbit by 2010, said Luo Ge, a
vice administrator at the Chinese National Space
Administration.

“Space is a high-risk investment,” Luo said through a
translator at the Center for Strategic and International
Studies, a Washington think tank. “China as a developing
country is limited and constrained by its funding for more
ambitious programs.”

Luo said China’s total annual investment in space programs
is equivalent to $500 million, but he said this was a rough
figure, “not like NASA figures.”

NASA’s proposed budget for fiscal 2007 is $16.8 billion.

The Chinese space agency envisions a “constellation” of
eight satellites to monitor global disasters, and another
satellite that would watch the Earth’s magnetic fields as a
possible predictor of earthquakes, Luo said.

Luo headed a delegation that visited NASA’s Goddard Space
Flight Center and had a discussion with the U.S. space agency’s
chief, Michael Griffin.

INTEREST IN SPACE STATION

Describing his meeting with Griffin, Luo said he talked
about how open the United States was on his first visit in
1980.

“At that time I found the U.S. was very open, and in the
1990s and now, it’s the other way around,” he said. “I think
one country, if it’s open, is going to have progress, and if
it’s closed, then it’s going to be left behind.”

Luo said that in the 1950s and 1970s, China was closed and
had slow development, “but after the 1980s, we have achieved
substantial progress and development, so countries should be
open.”

China’s space program has moved ahead in the last three
years, including the launch of two human missions, even as the
U.S. shuttle program has come to a near-standstill after the
fatal 2003 break-up of shuttle Columbia.

Only one shuttle has launched since the Columbia accident,
and the same problem of falling debris that led to the
Columbia’s deadly disintegration recurred on that launch. The
next shuttle launch is set for July.

Luo said China has had 46 consecutive successful launches
since 1996, including 23 satellites and six Shenzhou
spacecraft, which can carry astronauts.

China’s Moon exploration program includes a lunar fly-by in
2007, a soft landing in 2012 and a return of lunar samples by
2017, Luo said.

He said China has cooperated on space programs with Europe,
Nigeria, Venezuela, Russia and Brazil, among others. Asked if
China was looking for cooperation with the United States and
other nations on the International Space Station, Luo replied,
“We have always been interested; we don’t have a ticket yet.”