First Chinese Astronauts Soon, Say Officials

Z H U H A I, China, Nov. 6 -- China will soon put aperson into space and become the third nation in the world toboast manned space flight, a top Chinese aerospace officialsaid Sunday.

A manned launch was not far off, Vice President Hu Hongfuof China Aerospace Science Technology Corp told a newsconference at the third Zhuhai air show.

“It will not be long before Chinese astronauts can ridelocally made spaceships into space,” Hu said.

The official gave no timetable but said it would happen “atthe beginning of the 21st century.”

An Expensive Challenge

The former Soviet Union and the United States have beenputting people into orbit since the early 1960s, but othernations have not deemed the challenge worth pursuing.

China already builds and launches its own satellites — forcommunications and weather forecasting, for example — and Husaid the country’s aerospace agencies would focus on developinglonger-lasting, higher-capacity communications satellites in anattempt to catch up with foreign technology.

The new communication satellites would boost the country’sbroadcasting industry, he said.

“The next goal for us would be to accelerate theeffectiveness of satellites We’ll focus on increasing thelifespan and capacity of our communication satellites,” Husaid.

Development of China’s first generations of satellites hadprovided the company with a technological foundation and pavedthe way for later research, he added later.

But the company, which groups more than 130 aerospaceagencies, said the lifting capability and success rate ofChina’s launch vehicles were almost on a par with those ofothercountries.

Technology Gap to Close

China would gradually close the distance between itsdomestic space industry and that of other nations, even thoughthe country’s spending on space technology over the past 40years had been equivalent to the amount spent by most advancedspace-faring countries in just one year, Hu said.