China rockets into space (video)

Steve Chao, Al Jazeera English, June 16, 2012

GOBI DESERT - China's latest space mission has successfully lifted off with the country's first female taikonaut. It is the next step in China's strategy to build a permanently-occupied space station of its own. It is now in a position to reveal the truth about the Moon, its archeological artifacts, stations, and occupants. The West's military-industrial complex must negotiate with the world's largest country and quite possibly its strongest economy if it has any hope of it maintaining the silence.

China's first spacewalk team back on Earth

Gillian Wong (AP, 9/28/08)

Jing Haipeng, Zhai Zhigang, Liu Boming attend send-off ceremony 9/25/08. They have been welcomed home as national heroes (AP).

BEIJING -- Buddhists in space are back on earth. Three Chinese astronauts emerged from their capsule Sunday after a milestone mission to carry out the country's first spacewalk, showing off China's technological know-how and cementing its status as a space power and future competitor to the United States.

A senior space official said the mission — China's most ambitious yet — took the country one step closer in its plan to build a space station and then to land a man on the moon. Wang Zhaoyao, deputy director of manned space flight, said the program is looking to launch a new orbiting vehicle and set up a simple space lab by 2011. There are also hopes of sending unmanned and manned space vehicles to perform docking activities with the target vehicle.

By 2020, China wants to launch a manned mission to experiment with technologies that will enable astronauts to take care of spacecraft for longer periods of time... More>>