20 July 2019
An interesting read is this article from 23 April 2016 which outlines the early efforts and the political context of the beginnings of China's space programme.
"In 1957 and 1958, the Soviet Union and the United States each launched their first satellites, officially starting a space race. Mao Zedong was quick to pronounce, "We too shall make satellites." Members of the Chinese Academy of Sciences scrambled to turn those words into reality. They aimed to launch their first probe in 1960. Publicly, few at the time deemed the goal far-fetched. But it was the Great Leap Forward, a period of exaggerated agricultural and industrial ambitions."
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19 July 2019
By the end of 2019, Brazil and China will launch CBERS-4a, the sixth satellite in the China-Brazil Earth Resources Satellite (CBERS) programme that this year celebrates 20 years since the first, CBERS-1, was sent to space. Using data from CBERS satellites, the Brazilian National Space Research Institute (INPE) announced recently that deforestation rates in the Amazon rose 88% between June 2018 and the same month this year, the highest in years.
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Thank you very much for joining us today, Mike Collins!

20 July 2019
CNN reviews the progress China has made during the last decades. The report looks at the advancement of China's lunar exploration programme and the emerge of its commercial space sector. And it puts the question on the table where will the development lead to. Blaine Curcio, founder of Hong Kong-based space industry research firm Orbital Gateway Consulting tells CNN: "The implication is that, if they keep getting better at scale, they are probably going to be come the leading power at some point. It's just a matter of time."
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