Astronomy and Space

History of the Chinese space program

The Chinese space program today conducts the most or second most orbital launches each year; China is one of three countries with a human spaceflight capability. Since the 2020s, the program has been contrasted against Western space programs as the "New Space Race". From the 1950s, aided by the Soviet Union, development began on China's nuclear weapons, Dongfeng ballistic missiles, and Long March rockets, honored as the Two Bombs, One Satellite projects. Despite setbacks from the Cultural Revolution and Sino-Soviet split, China became the fifth country to independently launch a satellite, Dong Fang Hong 1 in 1970. China developed the Shenzhou crewed craft from Russia's Soyuz after a 1995 treaty; Shenzhou 5 carried the first Chinese astronaut in 2003. China commercially launched Western satellites from 1988, but failures, especially Intelsat 708, caused the US to embargo satellite export in 1998. After the US vetoed its joining the ISS, China began the Tiangong program, operating prototypes Tiangong-1 and -2 before the current Tiangong, the world's third modular space station. China's Moon missions achieved the world's first far side landing (Chang'e 4), far side sample return (Chang'e 6), and longest-lived rover (Yutu-2). China's interplanetary missions deployed Tianwen-1, a Mars orbiter, lander, and the rover Zhurong; Tianwen-2 visited an asteroid in 2026 and will visit a comet in 2035. Its satellite constellations include BeiDou Navigation, Gaofen Observation, and the Guowang and Qianfan internet constellations. Long March 5 is the most powerful rocket operating outside of the US, and first Long March to not use hypergolic propellant. Since 2019, China's private and state enterprises have made over a hundred launches with new rocket designs, such as the Kuaizhou family and Ceres-1. China is developing reusable spacecraft, including the Long March 10 rocket family and a military spaceplane. China plans a crewed lunar landing by 2030, using the planned Mengzhou craft, Lanyue lander, and Long March 10 rocket. China previously cooperated with the European Space Agency on deep space tracking and space science.

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• ▸47 Ophiuchi
• ▸Carabinieri
• ▸64 Eridani

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