Thursday, December 31, 2009

China accelerates space research and development

Chinese Long March Family of Boosters.

Craig Covault at SpaceFlight Now has posted a fascinating article on the Chinese Space Operations. According to Covault, "China in 2010 will be engaged in the most ambitious and diverse manned and unmanned space system research and development surge since the U.S. and Soviet Union squared off in the 1960s space race."

"In addition to maturing its manned program for ambitious flight operations in 2011 the Chinese will also launch its second lunar orbiter mission and complete development of a nuclear powered common lunar lander bus that by 2013 is to support Chinese lunar rover operations then unmanned lunar sample return flights by 2017."

For more on this article jump over to http://www.spaceflightnow.com/news/n0912/28china/ to read the rest of this copyrighted article.