China "Boldly Goes" for Space Independence

upstart writes:

China "Boldly Goes" for Space Independence - Asian Military Review:

While China's rapid progress as a major player in space technology and capability is undeniable, the 'achilles heel' to its next step may be the restraint of the private sector.

On 29 April this year a China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology (CALT) Long March 5B Y2 rocket was successfully launched from the Wenchang launch site in Hainan Province, China. It carried the Tianhe module which will become the core of China's orbiting space station. Once completed in 2022, Tiangong (as the orbiting station is named) will be China's first long-term space presence. After 2025, it may become the only orbit space station if the International Space Station (ISS) is retired to schedule (although this could potentially be extended to 2028). Tiangong is expected to have a service life of ten years (although again this could be extended).

Tiangong is the successor to China's Tiangong-1 and Tiangong-2 space laboratories, launched in 2011 and 2016. It's only one of a growing number of Chinese space projects. Beijing's leaders have invested a vast treasure into a long-term strategy that works, simultaneously, at multiple targets: placing into space new orbiting assets; ensuring advanced technologies for land-based assets on earth, such a launch facilities; assets inserted onto celestial bodies, starting with the Moon, and extending to asteroids and Mars.

Dr. Namrata Goswami, an independent scholar on space policy, great power politics, and ethnic conflicts, stated that a permanent space station is deemed to be important by Beijing's leaders because it helps to send 'signals' to the world that China is openly contesting the US for space leadership, and that it is a capable partner for international cooperation in space.

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