Space News
Thu, 29 December, 2011
China Outlines Space Priorities, Including Debris Mitigation, New Launch Vehicles
By Peter B. de Selding
PARIS — The Chinese government on Dec. 29 issued a broad statement on its five-year space program, saying top priorities include developing three new launch vehicles — including a rapid-response launch system — and mitigating its contribution to space debris.
The 17-page white paper, “China’s Space Activities in 2011,” reiterates China’s focus on lunar exploration, with robotic lunar landers and a lunar sample-return mission slated for launch by 2016. The country’s well-publicized development of its manned space station in low Earth orbit is also a priority.
Chinese officials accustomed to criticizing alleged breaches of space etiquette by the United States came in for a large dose of international criticism following China’s intentional destruction of one of its satellites in low Earth orbit in 2007. The maneuver, apparently designed to test a mobile ground-based missile launch system, left a large field of debris that will complicate satellite operations — including China’s operations — in low Earth orbit for decades.
The U.S. Air Force, using the U.S. Space Surveillance Network of ground radars, informed Chinese authorities of debris approaching Chinese satellites on 147 occasions in the 12 months ending in June, according to U.S. State Department data.
The white paper, published by China’s Information Office of the State Council, repeatedly returns to space debris as a concern. China’s Long March rockets are being “fully deactivated” after mission completion to reduce the possibility of future explosion in orbit, the paper says. In addition, it says, operators of satellites in geostationary orbit 36,000 kilometers over the equator, the home of most telecommunications spacecraft, have begun “moving a few aging ... satellites out of orbit.”
Nonbinding international guidelines call for geostationary satellites to be moved several hundred kilometers above the geostationary arc when they are nearing retirement. The same guidelines call for satellites in low Earth orbit to be sent on retirement into orbital trajectories that will cause them to be burned up on atmospheric re-entry within 25 years.
China’s Beidou satellite-based positioning, navigation and timing constellation entered limited regional service in late 2011. By 2020, the system is scheduled to enter full global service with five geostationary satellites and 30 satellites in nongeostationary orbit. Beidou is one of four global satellite navigation systems, the others being the U.S. GPS network; Russia’s Glonass system, which in 2011 returned to operational status; and Europe’s Galileo system, still in development.
The document says China is engaged in international discussions to coordinate satellite navigation radio frequencies to avoid interference. It makes no mention of China’s ongoing talks with the 27-nation European Union with respect to overlapping signals on the encrypted military-security signals planned for both Galileo and Beidou.
The signal overlay will not cause interference for either system, but will make it impossible for either to jam the signals of the other without also jamming its own system.
China’s Long March rockets have been, along with its manned space program, the most visible of China’s space priorities. In 2011, Long March vehicles set a record for annual launch activity, with 19 launches, including the successful launch and in-orbit docking of the Tiangong-1 orbiter and the Shenzhou-8 spacecraft, in preparation for China’s future space station.
Three commercial launches for non-Chinese operators were conducted — the Paksat-1R and Nigcomsat-1R telecommunications satellites for the Pakistani and Nigerian governments, with China providing the satellites as well as the launch; and the launch of Paris-based Eutelsat’s W3C telecommunications satellite.
In a Dec. 27 statement, the China Great Wall Industry Corp., which commercializes the Long March vehicle family, said it plans to launch five non-Chinese satellites in 2012, including the Apstar 7 and Apstar 7B telecommunications spacecraft for APT Satellite Co. Ltd of Hong Kong.
The white paper says the next five years will see completion of development of a fourth spaceport, in Hainan, and development of the Long March 5, Long March 6 and Long March 7 variants.
The Long March 5 is being designed to lift up to 25,000 kilograms of payload into low Earth orbit. The Long March 6 is described as a “high-speed response” vehicle capable of carrying less than 1,000 kilograms into a 700-kilometer polar low Earth orbit. The Long March 7, it says, will be able to place a 5,500-kilogram satellite into the same orbit.
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The New York Times
December 29, 2011
Space Plan From China Broadens Challenge to U.S.
By EDWARD WONG and KENNETH CHANG
BEIJING — Broadening its challenge to the United States, the Chinese government on Thursday announced an ambitious five-year plan for space exploration that would move China closer to becoming a major rival at a time when the American program is in retreat.
Coupled with China’s earlier vows to build a space station and put an astronaut on the moon, the plan conjured up memories of the cold-war-era space race between the United States and the Soviet Union. The United States, which has de-emphasized manned spaceflight in recent years, is now dependent on Russia for transporting its astronauts to the International Space Station. Russia, for its part, has suffered an embarrassing string of failed satellite launchings.
China has been looking for ways to exert its growing economic strength and to demonstrate that its technological mastery and scientific achievements can approach those of any global power. The plan announced Thursday calls for launching a space lab and collecting samples from the moon, all by 2016, along with a more powerful manned spaceship and space freighters.
In recent years, China has also sought to build a military capacity in keeping with its economic might, expanding its submarine fleet and, this year, testing its first aircraft carrier, a refurbished Soviet model. Under the new space plan, it would vastly expand its version of a Global Positioning System, which would have military as well as civilian uses.
The plan shows how the government intends to draw on military and civilian resources to meet the goals, which the government is betting will also produce benefits for the Chinese economy. “This approach offers lessons for other advanced space powers, including the U.S., which needs to make sure it sustains its high-level investment in various aspects of space development across the board,” said Andrew S. Erickson, a professor at the United States Naval War College who has studied the Chinese space program.
While a leader in the business of launching satellites, China is still years behind the United States in space. Its human spaceflight accomplishments to date put it roughly where the United States and the Soviet Union were in the mid-1960s.
But China has consistently stuck to a development timeline for its program and met the realistic goals set out in its five-year plans, which are mainstays of the Communist Party’s authoritarian system.
For human spaceflight, the plan lays out a continuation of China’s steady but unrushed efforts to develop technologies and extend its capacities. It says that China will begin the work to land its astronauts on the moon, but it does not provide a target date for when they will go.
“I think it is a comprehensive, moderately paced program,” said John M. Logsdon, former director of the Space Policy Institute at George Washington University. “It’s not a crash program.”
By contrast, NASA’s direction tends to shift with every change of presidency. President George W. Bush called on NASA to return to the moon by 2020. President Obama canceled that program and now wants the agency to send astronauts to an asteroid. NASA shut down its 30-year space shuttle program after a final flight in July.
“The one thing that is admirable about their program is they don’t have fits and starts,” said Joseph R. Fragola, a space safety expert who has visited the space facilities in China. “Their program is low budget but it is laid out, and they follow it in an orderly process, and we don’t do that.”
Experts say Beijing is approaching its space program the way it did its military modernization. In addition to the aircraft carrier, which it bought from Ukraine, China has also made a progress on an anti-ship ballistic missile, which could be deployed to ward off foreign warships. Last January, the Chinese military tested a stealth fighter hours before Robert M. Gates, the defense secretary at the time, met in Beijing with President Hu Jintao.
Unlike in the United States, where there are separate military and civilian space programs, in China the People’s Liberation Army is the driving force behind development of the Chinese space program. Civilian institutions, including various universities and laboratories, are part of the military-led efforts. In the white paper that laid out the plan, released by the State Council, China’s cabinet, the authors took pains to say that Beijing was not seeking to challenge any nation militarily with its space program.
“China always adheres to the use of outer space for peaceful purposes, and opposes weaponization or any arms race in outer space,” the paper said.
Analysts say one of the more notable goals of the five-year strategy is to further develop the Beidou Navigation Satellite System, which on Tuesday began providing navigation, positioning and timing data on China and surrounding areas. The white paper said China intended to have a global system by 2020, with 35 satellites in orbit. If it met that goal, China would join Russia in having a system that tries to rival America’s. China has already launched 10 satellites for the Beidou system, and plans to launch six more next year.
Beidou is not as advanced as its American counterpart, but it is expected to overshadow the Russian system and would provide the Chinese military with an alternative to relying on a civilian version of the American network. Beidou would also be used for civilian purposes, like providing drivers with a navigation tool.
“This has major commercial implications, it has major security implications,” Mr. Erickson said. “To be a great military and space power, it’s important to have one’s own satellite navigation system.”
The white paper, which follows similar reports released in 2000 and 2006, also said China would develop new Long March launch vehicles to deliver heavier payloads into orbit. It will also work on improving conditions for human spaceflight.
To lay that groundwork, the paper said, China “will launch space laboratories, manned spaceship and space freighters; make breakthroughs in and master space station key technologies, including astronauts’ medium-term stay, regenerative life support and propellant refueling; conduct space applications to a certain extent and make technological preparations for the construction of space stations.”
On deep-space exploration, the paper said China planned to launch orbiters that would make soft lunar landings and do roving and surveying. After that, the paper said, China will collect samples of the moon’s surface and bring them back for analysis.
The paper also said China planned to carry out a comprehensive plan for upgrading its satellite technology and widening the uses of its satellites.
“In aggregate, this is clearly going to propel China even further into space to a significant degree,” Mr. Erickson said. “There’s relentless progress across the board.”
In 2003, China became the third country to send a human into space, behind the United States and the Soviet Union, when it put Yang Liwei into orbit around the earth. It launched a lunar probe in 2007 that orbited the moon and took pictures, and the next year completed its first spacewalk when Zhai Zhigang remained for 13 minutes outside the Shenzhou 7 spacecraft.
China’s Long March 5 rocket, currently under development, would be able to lift about 25 tons to low-earth orbit, comparable to the United States’ Delta IV Heavy rocket and much smaller than the Saturn V rocket that launched the Apollo spacecraft to the moon four decades ago. But that would be enough for China to get to the moon by launching its lunar spacecraft in pieces and assembling it in the earth’s orbit.
Edward Wong reported from Beijing, and Kenneth Chang from New York.
© 2011 The New York Times Company
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BBC News
29 December 2011 Last updated at 23:39 ET
China white paper sets out five-year space plan
China's unmanned Shenzhou-8 returned to Earth, after completing two space dockings last month The unmanned Shenzhou-8 returned to Earth, after completing two space dockings last month.
China has released a white paper setting out its space plans for the next five years.
China ''will push forward human spaceflight projects and make new technological breakthroughs'', the report said.
It plans to develop next-generation rockets, new types of satellites and carry out deep-space exploration.
In the long term, China is working towards building a space station and putting a person on the moon.
The white paper also summarised China's space activities since 2006 and spelt out policies for international co-operation, in a move that appeared aimed at allaying concern over its space ambitions.
''China will work together with the international community to maintain a peaceful and clean outer space and endeavour to make new contributions to the lofty cause of promoting world peace and development,'' said the report.
It lists collaborations with countries such as Russia, Brazil, France and Britain. China will also ''continue to make dialogue regarding the space field'' with the US, following a NASA delegation visit in October.
China views its space programme as a key part of its national development and international growth.
Manned mission
According to the white paper, the Shenzhou-9 and Shenzhou-10 spaceships will be launched to dock with the Tiangong-1 space lab module.
Tiangong-1, which means ''heavenly palace'', was launched aboard a Long March 2F rocket in September. It is the first part of China's space station.
Last month the Shenzhou-8 spent just under 17 days in orbit - the longest Shenzhou mission to date - and rendezvoused with the space lab.
Officials have indicated that at least one of the two next Shenzhou missions would be manned and that 2012 might even see the country's first female astronaut.
The white paper also said China would improve its Long March launch vehicles, building next-generation rockets that used ''non-toxic and pollutant-free propellant''. It plans to upgrade launch sites and finish a new launch base in Hainan.
It will also continue building its Beidou satellite navigation system, with aims to cover the Asia-Pacific region by the end of 2012 and complete global coverage by 2020.
China will also launch orbiters to survey the moon, land on it and obtain samples that can be studied.
Ultimately, it wants to put a person on the moon. In the next five years, the report said, China will ''conduct studies on the preliminary plan for a human lunar landing''.
China's space activities in 2011
Tiangong-1 was launched in September on a Long March 2F rocket
The unmanned laboratory unit was first put in a 350km-high orbit
Shenzhou 8 was sent up to rendezvous and dock with Tiangong-1
The project tested key technologies such as life-support systems
BBC © 2011
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