CHINA MANNED SPACE PROGRAMME AND OPPORTUNITY FOR COOPERATION

Friday 30 September 13:30 – 14:30
Guadalajara hall 8

China launched its manned space programme in 1992 and has been implementing it following the “three-step” strategy. So far, all the objectives of the first- and second-step have been achieved with great success. In June 2016, China conducted the debut flight mission of the Long March 7 (CZ-7) carrier rocket towards constructing its manned space station for the third step. The mission also involved the inauguration of the new Wenchang Space Launch Center, located at the Hainan Island in south China. The main payload for this mission was a scaled-down version of a next generation crew vehicle that was successfully recovered in Inner Mongolia after a short orbital flight. It has been already scheduled to launch TG-2 space lab in the middle of September 2016, just several days before the opening of the IAC in Guadalajara, which will be followed by the Shenzhou-11 manned space flight mission in October 2016. Details in progress of CZ-7 and TG-2 missions will be highlighted. China will construct its manned space station on orbit from 2018 and put it into operation in around 2022. The station modules, construction plan, and experiment facilities on board will be presented in detail.

China’s space station will be allowed for international cooperation in the areas of jointly developing the station platform, flying experiments by scientists from all over the world, selecting, training and flying foreign astronauts to the station, and promoting existing human space technology and facilities with a view to contributing to the sustainable development of our Earth planet.

Among others, China Manned Space Agency and the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs have signed the Framework Agreement and the Funding Agreement concerning cooperation on the utilization of China’s Space Station. Under the framework of the agreements, the both parties will work together to provide United Nations Member States with opportunities to fly their space experiments, their astronauts and/or payload engineers on board China’s Space Station. Details pertaining to this collaboration will be explained.