China to release latest space development plan

style="FONT-SIZE: 14px; LINE-HEIGHT: 170%">Chinanews, Guangzhou, October 16 – Sun Laiyan, the director of the National Space Administration, released some detailed information about China’s space development procedure during the 11th Five-Year Plan Period (2006-2010), which will be publicized very soon. Sun released it at the Shenzhen Hi-Tech Fair. According to Sun, China will carry further manned-spacecraft experiments, including spacewalk and spacecraft docking. A space laboratory will also be launched. China also plans to launch its own lunar orbiters before 2010 to examine the space environment around the moon. In 2013, it might send its lunar surveyor to patrol the surface of the moon and collect samples of lunar materials. The building of a hi-resolution terrain observation system will also be included in the plan. The system will consist of satellites, aircraft and stratospheric airships. It will be completed in the next 13 – 15 years. Sun also talked about the Compass, China’s next-generation satellite navigation system, which will be expanded to a network with 30 satellites, and cover all the regions on earth. China is also developing new launch vehicles, which will not only be huge, but also be eco-friendly and highly stable.