[jumpermax]

la Cina rilancia... vogliono anche una stazione spaziale...

http://washingtontimes.com/upi-break...1914-4092r.htm
Beijing, , May. 18 (UPI) -- China announced Tuesday it will build a permanently manned space station before 2020, the government's official news agency Xinhua reported.

The chief designer of China's manned space program, Wang Yongzhi, said his country has invested $2.18 billion dollars during the past 11 years in its manned space program.

Wang, a 72-year-old academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, has been chief designer of China's manned space program since 1992.

Last October his agency achieved manned space flight.

He said China would build a permanently manned space station during the next 15 years.

a quanto pare si cancella la luna e si focalizza sulla stazione spaziale... l'esatto contrario della strategia USA

China Cancels Moon Plans to Focus on Space Station
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.j...toryID=5171585
BEIJING (Reuters) - China plans to build its own manned space station by around 2020 but has shelved plans to put a man on the moon for financial reasons, state media quoted the chief designer of the nation's space program as saying.

Wang Yongzhi, godfather of the mission that completed its first manned flight successfully last year, said the permanent station would take about 15 years to complete, the official Xinhua news agency said, citing a Beijing newspaper.

"China will also conduct a lunar orbiting program," Wang told a gathering of high school students on Sunday, the Beijing News reported.

But contrary to previously announced plans, the 72-year-old said the lunar probe would not land a man on the moon.

China rocketed ex-fighter pilot Yang Liwei into orbit around Earth in October, becoming only the third nation in space after the former Soviet Union and the United States and fueling bigger dreams of galactic exploration.

Officials of the highly secretive program have made vague reference to a future space station but the timeline projected by Wang was believed to be the most specific to date.

China has welcomed international cooperation in its space station.

It was unclear if plans to forge ahead on its own were influenced by recent signs the United States might not want China to join the 16-nation, $95 billion International Space Station.

Chinese space officials were "shocked" the United States had not done more to welcome them into the small community of space-faring nations, a leading U.S. expert said last month after a trip to China.

The United States harbors concerns that the army-run Chinese program could some day pose a threat to U.S. dominance in military satellite communications.