A look at how China’s space program isn’t cut from the old space race mold:
“Fifty years after the dawn of the Space Age, China is solidifying its position as only the third nation to launch humans in orbit.
If all goes well, three ‘taikonauts”’will embark Thursday on a three-day Earth-orbit mission, which includes the country’s first spacewalk.
But space is no longer the domain of the US, Russia, or even China. It’s a global affair.
‘It’s not two players any more. In space exploration and Earth observation, you have capabilities around the world. So the question is: How do we move forward’ (together)? says Vincent Sabathier, a former official with the French Space Agency CNES and now a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington…”
“In May 2007, he says, the Chinese launched the Nigerian government’s NIGCOMSAT 1, which aims to provide a satellite telecommunications system across a broad swath of Africa. Beijing has collaborated with Brazil on remote sensing satellites. And it’s taking part in Europe’s Galileo project – a global navigation system similar to the US’s satellite-based global positioning system (GPS) and Russia’s emerging Glonass navigation system.” [Read]
