China reveals its space plans up to 2016
Associated Press
China has released its next five-year space plan to help it on its way to its eventual goals of building a space station and putting a man on the moon.
The white paper released Thursday says that by the end of 2016, China will launch space laboratories, manned spaceships and ship freighters, and make technological preparations for the construction of space stations.
It says the country will carry on exploring the moon using probes, start gathering samples of the moon's surface, and "push forward its exploration of planets, asteroids and the sun."
China places great emphasis on the development of its space industry, which is seen as a symbol of national prestige.
China to build first space telescope
Jiefang Daily (translated by People's Daily Online)
China may build its first large-caliber space telescope on its space station, said Gong Huixing, academician of Chinese Academy of Engineering.
Its caliber will be smaller than that of the Hubble Space Telescope, but its field of view will be wider that of the Hubble, said Gong.
The largest caliber of the primary mirror of the telescope is 2 meters, shorter than Hubble Space Telescope (2.4 meters) by about one-sixth. With a relatively lower resolution ratio, the telescope features larger field of view with wider cosmic space observed at the same time. It can also conduct infrared observation.
China will possess its first space station around 2020, said Zhang Chongfeng, vice general designer of the Space Laboratory System of the Manned Space Flight Project.
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