25 April 2022
The Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Science and Beijing Xingjian Tianhang space technology company conducted a test for launching a rocket with a payload from a high altitude helium balloon on 24 April from Lenghu Town, Haixi Prefecture, northwest China’s Qinghai Province. The rocket reached an altitude of 25 - 40 km and recorded environmental data of the upper layers of the atmoshpere.
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24 April 2022
China kick-started its annual Space Day celebrations themed "Space inspires dreams" on 24 April in South China's tropical island province of Hainan, home to Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Site. The United Nations Under-Secretary-General Atul Khare, Director General of the European Organization for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites Phil Evans, Russia's space agency Roscosmos Director Dmitry Rogozin, and officials with Pakistan's space agency Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission sent congratulations to China for Space Day.
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24 April 2022
On the occasion of the China Space Day 2022, Wu Yanhua, CNSA's Deputy Director, said on 24 April, that the engineering development of the 4th phase of its lunar exploration programme will start this year. CE-6, CE-7 and CE-8 will be launched successively before 2030 and breakthroughs in key technologies will be achieved for building an international lunar research station. CE-6 will collect samples from the far side of the Moon. Also, CNSA is planning to install a satellite constellation around the Moon to provide communication and navigation services. The main goal of the 4th phase is to carry out scientific exploration on the Moon's south pole and set-up a fundamental type of lunar scientific research station. "We are expecting that more missions will follow after 2030, so construction on the ILRS will be completed by 2035 for long-term operation," Wu Weiren, CLEP Chief Designer said. "If the lunar research station project can be successfully implemented, China will not be far away from achieving a manned landing on the Moon," said Wu. Chinese scientists and engineers are already studying how to do this.
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24 April 2022
Wu Yanhua, Deputy Director of the CNSA, told China's CCTV News recently that China will start to build an Earth-based and space-based NEA (near-Earth asteroid) monitoring and warning system, in order to ensure the safe, stable and orderly operation of spacecraft. China will categorise the risks posed by NEAs and explore techniques to mitigate those risks, said Wu. Furthermore, China plans to set up an NEA defense system, map out an NEA defense blueprint and develop virtual software to simulate NEA-derived risk scenarios. The country hopes to approach an asteroid to observe it closely before impacting it to alter its orbit in 2025 or 2026, a rehearsal to prevent NEAs from endangering our planet in the future, according to Wu.
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