BEIJING (AP) - China's burgeoning space
program has announced plans to launch its first astronomy satellite and participate in joint
projects with Russia and France, state media reported Monday.
The satellite to be launched
in 2010 will carry a "hard X-ray modulation telescope'" being developed by
Chinese scientists for the study of black holes and other space phenomena, the
official newspaper China Daily said, citing a government Space Science Development
Plan released over the weekend.
China also will take part
in Russia's project to send an unmanned probe to Mars' moon, Phobos, to collect soil
samples, the paper said. It gave no details, although a Russian space official
said last year China would build a mini-satellite that would be carried by the
Russian probe and released near Mars to collect data. Russia has scheduled the
probe's launch for 2009.
China's space program
shifted into overdrive following the country's first
manned space mission in 2003. The United States and Russia are the only
other countries to have successfully carried out manned missions.
China has since launched a second
manned mission and announced plans for a lunar orbiter to be launched
sometime this year. A third
manned space mission is scheduled for next year and reportedly will include
the country's first
spacewalk [image].
The secretive military-run
space program has increasingly reached out to overseas partners, including the
European Space Agency. Budding links
with America's NASA were thrown into question, however, after China in January fired an
anti-satellite weapon that destroyed a defunct Chinese
weather satellite, strewing debris that could threaten other
satellites in low orbit. Washington harshly criticized the test.
Among other projects
mentioned in the report, China and France will cooperate in sending a probe
called the Small Explorer for Solar Eruptions to observe solar activity during
the next solar maximum in about 2011, when the sun's activity is expected to
reach its cyclical peak.
The space plan, issued by
the Commission of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense, says
China will "focus on innovation and sustainability of space science development
to better serve the national economy and security, and help build China into an
innovative country," Xinhua said.
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