Latest Asian space race Stories

China has unveiled its plans for the country's space program for the next five years, including detailed plans about space labs and manned ships. According to the statement, China will launch space laboratories, manned spaceship and ship freighters by the end of 2016. The document also said that it will be making technological preparations for the construction of space stations as well. China's space program has already made major strides in exploration, but still lags behind both...

Twenty of the 22 rocket manufacturing facilities are completed in the northern Chinese port city of Tianjin, the Global Times said. The increasingly ambitious country is gearing up to build rockets for its budding space program with an eye towards landing astronauts on the moon.The latest rockets, named Long March IV and V will be designed and built at the 500-acre complex, AFP reports, citing Liang Xiaohong, vice head of the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology.With a payload capacity...

Despite its relatively small budget, Japan's space program has courageously reached for the heavens, pioneering solar-powered galactic travel, exploring a distant asteroid and planning a robot base on the Moon. Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) has completed several world firsts this past year, including the safe return of a deep-space probe that picked up asteroid dust from an oblong space rock on an epic seven-year mission. The Hayabusa (Falcon in English) ended its...

A South Korean rocket exploded on Thursday less than three minutes after lift-off, offering another blow to the country's dreams of becoming a big player in the Asian space race. Science and Technology minister Ahn Byong-Man told reporters the Naro-1 rocket was thout to have blown up 137 seconds after its launch, the same time as ground control lost contact with it. "The Naro appeared to have exploded in flight," Ahn said, adding that Russian and South Korean engineers were trying...

China is planning to launch its second lunar probe next October to get ready for an unmanned moon landing by the end of 2012, state-run media reported on Friday. The Chang'e 2 probe is a more advanced version of the Chang'e 1 that had a controlled collision with the moon in March, ending a 16-month mission. According to the official China Daily newspaper, designer Ye Peijian said that Chang'e 2 will orbit 60 miles closer to the moon than the first probe, which was launched in 2007, and will...

South Korea's first space rocket blasted off Tuesday after a long-delayed launch, but failed to place a satellite into its designated orbit, AFP reported.The Korea Space Launch Vehicle-1 lifted off from the Naro Space Center at 5:00 pm (0800 GMT). The payload separated from the second-stage booster about eight minutes after lift-off but did not enter its targeted orbit.Science and technology minister Ahn Byong-Man said the South Korean-built 220-pound scientific research satellite that was...

South Korea will launch its first space rocket from its territory on August 11, following repeated delays due to technical problems, officials reported on Saturday.The country's Ministry of Education, Science and Technology said South Korea set the new launch date after talks with Russia, a co-builder of the rocket."Both sides have set August 11 for blast-off," said Kim Hong-Gab, a spokesman for the ministry-affiliated Korea Aerospace Research Institute, during an interview with the...

China will launch a Mars probe atop a Russian rocket later this year, according to a report by the China's official Xinhua news agency on Thursday.Yinghuo-1, or Firefly Light-1, passed a critical test, the report quoted Zhang Weiqiang, deputy secretary of the Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology, as saying.The 253 lb. probe has an expected life of two years, and would orbit the red planet in 2010 after completing a 10-month, 240-million-mile journey, Zhang added.Although the probe won't...

India is counting down the days until the launch of its first unmanned mission to the moon. The move will mark a giant catch-up step with Japan and China in the fast-developing Asian space race.The lunar-orbiting spacecraft, Chandrayaan-1, is scheduled to blast off aboard an Indian-built rocket Wednesday morning. It takes place at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota on India's southeastern coast."Everything is going perfectly as planned," the center's associate director...

Space experts believe China has a growing confidence and capability in space; the launch of Shenzhou-VII is another reminder. China says this mission is a critical step in a "three-step" human spaceflight program aimed at docking spacecraft together to form a small orbiting laboratory. It has sent a robotic spacecraft called Chang'e to the Moon. Plans are in place to land a robotic rover on the lunar surface in 2010. In 2007, China faced international criticism when it used a...