China plans to launch four manned spacecraft as part of its space station construction program in the next two years, said an official with the China National Space Administration (CNSA) Thursday.

China's manned space program will be very busy in 2021 and 2022, said Wu Yanhua, vice administrator of the CNSA, at a press conference on China's Chang'e-5 lunar mission.

Wu said a total of 11 missions to build China's space station are planned for the next two years, including the construction of the core module that is scheduled to be launched in the first half of next year, two lab capsules, as well as four manned craft and four cargo craft.

A large number of in-orbit scientific experiments will then be carried out on China's space station, he added.

In October, the China Manned Space Agency announced that the country's manned space program had entered the mission preparation stage with the selection of a new group of 18 reserve astronauts.

Mission accomplished, now on to the next: China Daily editorial
by Editoral Writiers
Beijing (XNA) Dec 21 - The Chang'e 5 lunar mission has been declared a complete success after the reentry capsule carrying rock and soil samples from the moon landed safely in the designated area early on Thursday.

Congratulations to all those who have participated in and contributed to this groundbreaking accomplishment. This is no doubt a solid step forward for the indigenous space industry, and potentially of great significance internationally.

During the mission, Chang'e 5 accomplished a series of firsts for the country's space program - first collecting of samples from the moon, takeoff from surface of the moon, docking in lunar orbit, and returning with samples - and the spacecraft's return marked the first time scientists have obtained fresh samples of lunar rocks since 1976. It has put the perfect finishing touch to the Chinese lunar exploration trilogy of "orbiting, landing, returning".

Meanwhile, as the most complicated systems engineering ever attempted by the domestic space industry, it has reportedly achieved a series of key technological innovations and breakthroughs that will greatly facilitate future lunar and interstellar missions.

It was therefore a mission of milestone significance, one that represented "a great step forward for China's space industry", as President Xi Jinping said in a statement read out at the Beijing Aerospace Control Center. Industry insiders say it is comparable to that of the country's 1970 success in sending its first-ever man-made satellite into space, which announced the dawn of the space age in China.

The Chang'e 5 mission means China has laid a solid foundation for the country's future plans for a permanent space station, manned missions to the moon and even Mars. Multiple interstellar missions have already been planned for the next decade.

More interestingly, industry sources have disclosed that the planned Chinese lunar research station, which is a major goal of future Chinese lunar exploration, will be built "in an open and cooperative manner".

The proposal has reportedly received positive responses from a number of countries and international organizations. This shows Chinese space industry's development is turning from independent indigenous endeavors to "all-around opening-up and cooperation".

Speaking of lessons to be learned, while once again showing that the centralized mobilization mechanisms can harness the necessary resources, at the end of the day, it is about perseverance paying dividends. Everything would have been just castles in the air had it not been down-to-earth, no-nonsense, step-by-step approach generations of space industry workers have demonstrated for decades.

It didn't matter to them this had been done more than four decades back by others. They knew the country had to blaze its own trail in order to catch up.

More than anything else, it is that perseverance that has won the space industry the solid standing it can now take pride in.

Source: Xinhua News Agency

Related Links
China National Space Agency
The Chinese Space Program - News, Policy and Technology
China News from SinoDaily.com

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