Tom Hasler explores China's exciting space program

Despite operating as a pariah on the international space exploration scene, China is now considered a world leader in space exploration. Earlier this month, China’s space program made the headlines when the Shenzhou 8 capsule successfully docked with the Tiangong 1 module 200 miles above the earth's surface. The successful testing of docking technology represents a massive milestone towards China’s own space station and the mission will be repeated again next year with a manned crew. This forms part of a grander ambition to set up a space program that rivals the United States and Russia, with an operation space station and manned expeditions to the moon and Mars already planned.

For China to have come so far is quite an achievement given that they are forced to operate independently from the greater space exploration community. Following the violence of the Tienanmen Square riots of 1989, the US imposed sanctions that barred the Chinese scientific community from any kind of cooperation regarding space technology, with the most visible example being their exclusion from the 15 nation international space station project. Despite being forced to develop almost all of their own technology, China is one of only three countries in the world to independently send a man into orbit. This manned space flight took place in 2003 and was undertaken by Yang Liwei. During the flight, which took Liwei around the earth 14 times, the astronaut was filmed waving both Chinese and UN flags and it is alleged that crop seeds from Taiwan were brought aboard the craft. Despite this minor controversy, the flight and China’s space program as a whole are now celebrated across the world and many believe the country's time in exile should come to an end.

While the US space program is still arguably as ambitious as China’s, with plans to reach Mars within the next decade, recent years have seen investment in the space program dwindle and international cooperation is becoming ever more essential as the challenges of space exploration become more demanding. It seems rather absurd to exclude China given that, without any help whatsoever, they have managed to elevate their space program to one of the most successful in the world. While the US is still conflicted about lifting the sanctions, China has said that its aerospace program, including any future space stations, would be open and available to all nations.

Whether or not it will ever be integrated into global endeavours, the rate of progress in recent years has made China’s space program one of the most exciting, especially when NASA is mired so heavily by the US’s economic woes. Who knows? Maybe the first men we see on Mars may be Chinese rather than American or Russian.