The People's Republic of China is gradually and rather successfully realizing its ambitious space plans and is rushing into space with frightening speed.
The Chinese space program was launched in 1956. The first goal of the program was to launch a satellite into near-earth orbit; the Chinese planned to time this event to coincide with the 10th anniversary of the formation of the PRC. At the same time, for the purposes of the program, the development of ballistic missiles was laid down, capable of giving a worthy rebuff to the insidious capitalist west. The Chinese failed to launch the satellite by the decade, but the launch of the first Chinese ballistic missile DF-1 was successful, it took place in 1960. The DF-1 rocket was practically an exact copy of the Soviet R-2 rocket.
At first, all Chinese developments related to space were exclusively military, but since 1968, the PRC has come to grips with the development of peaceful space. The Research Institute of Space Medicine and Engineering was created and an active selection of the Chinese analogue of astronauts - taikonauts - began.
Already in 1970, the Dong Fan Hung 1 apparatus, which was the first Chinese satellite, appeared in orbit. Over the next few years, the PRC managed to launch several more satellites, but compared to the space achievements of the United States and the USSR, the successes of the Celestial Empire looked pale. Already at that time, the Chinese were considering plans to carry out manned space flights, but until the mid-90s of the last century, the implementation of such flights seemed to be a rather dubious undertaking.
In 1994, Russia sold to the PRC some of its rather old, developed in the middle of the 20th century, space technologies used to produce the most reliable spacecraft - the famous Soyuz. Five years later, in 1999, the Chinese launched their first spacecraft, Shengzhou-1 (Heavenly Boat), coinciding, of course, with the next anniversary, the 50th anniversary of the PRC. In space, the "Heavenly Boat", while still without people, spent 21 hours. In 2001, a dog went into space on board Shengzhou-1, followed by a monkey, a rabbit, mice, cells and tissue samples, and nearly a hundred other animals and plants, as well as microorganisms.
The next two flights departed life-size human dummies. And finally, in 2003, the first Chinese taikonaut Yang Liwei went into space aboard the Shengzhou-5 spacecraft. "Heavenly boat" number five stayed in orbit for 21 hours and 22 minutes, making 14 orbits around the earth.
Although the incomplete day of stay of the first taikonaut in space cannot be compared with the records of Soviet cosmonauts and astronauts of the United States, nevertheless, China has joined the elite club of countries capable of launching a man into space.
In 2005, the second manned flight took place, which lasted five days. In 2008, the taikonauts flew for the third time, this time for the first time in the history of Chinese astronautics a taikonaut named Zhai Zhigang made a spacewalk. Zhigang was overboard for 25 minutes.
Manned flights are just a small part of the grandiose Chinese space program, which plans to create its own orbital station, send a mission to the moon and explore Mars. Currently, the Celestial Empire has already achieved quite noticeable results in all these areas.
Orbital station
The first module of the Chinese ISS went into orbit back in 1998; it is planned to complete the operation of the station in 2025. The PRC is not a member of the International Space Station program, but the Chinese do not seem to be very worried about this, since the Celestial Empire intends to acquire its own orbital "Heavenly Palace". It was originally planned to send the first laboratory module of the Tiangong-1 station ("Heavenly Palace") into space at the end of last year, but later the launch date was postponed to the second half of 2011.
Further, according to the plan, "Shengzhou-9" and "Shengzhou-10" are to dock with the palace, which will deliver taikonauts to the "Tiangong-1" module. By 2020, the internal space of the station should be expanded with two more modules, the main one and one more laboratory. It is planned that the Chinese analogue of the ISS will operate in orbit for at least ten years.
Lunar program
With the launch of the Chang'e-1 satellite in 2007, the Chinese lunar program was launched to the moon. "Chang'e-1" spent 16 months in orbit of the earth's satellite, completing its mission in early March 2009, it crashed into the surface of the moon.
The second lunar probe "Chang'e-2" was launched on October 1, 2010. "Chang'e-2", orbiting one hundred kilometers above the surface of the moon, is studying the surface and looking for a place to land the Chinese lunar probe "Chang'e-3".
The launch of Chang'e-3 is scheduled for 2013. The device will deliver a six-wheeled lunar rover to the moon. Radioactive isotopes will be used as a source of energy for the lunar rover.
Following the lunar rovers in 2017, the Taikonauts will go to the moon, who have already started training.
Exploration of Mars
In November 2013, the Chinese plan to launch a research probe into Mars orbit. Structurally, it will be similar to lunar probes, and the representatives of the Chinese astronautics emphasize the fact that all scientific instruments will be manufactured in the Celestial Empire. If the Chinese engineers do not have time to complete all the work by the end of 2013, then the next favorable time for launch, when the orbits of Earth and Mars are as close as possible, will be in 2016.
The launch of the Inkho-1 Martian probe is scheduled for November 2011. The device will be launched into space by a Russian launch vehicle - the Inkho-1 interplanetary station will be the Phobos-Grunt interplanetary station. To implement these grandiose plans, the PRC needs space platforms. At the moment, China already has three spaceports, and by 2013 it is planned to build another one. The construction of a new spaceport was started in 2009, it will be located on the island of Hainan, the location has been chosen well, the spaceport at such low latitudes will allow China to reduce costs when launching spacecraft outside the Earth.
Of course, China is not the only country striving to become one of the leaders in space exploration. Russia and the United States are recognized leaders in this matter, and regularly send ships and research vehicles. Europe is trying to keep up. India is also making progress, with the country's lunar probe becoming one of the devices that discovered water on the moon. Other developing countries also have space ambitions. In addition, the Chinese borrow many space technologies from Russia, for example, the Taikonauts' suits are modified versions of our Falcons, and their Heavenly Boat is largely copied from the Soyuz.
But nevertheless, with the rapid development of its space industry, China is making a serious claim for first place in the as yet officially undeclared space race.
