Wednesday, February 10, 2010

September 22, 2008 18:03 PM

China Denies Military Links To Space Programme

BEIJING, Sept 22 (Bernama) - China's space experts have denied any military intent in its space programme as the country readies to send its third manned launch into space, possibly as early as Thursday night.

Cui Jijun, director of the Jiuquan satellite launch centre in northwestern Gansu Province where the blastoff is scheduled, dismissed concerns that the space programme would be used for military ambitions, saying that it was a scientific exploration.

"So far, China's manned space programme hasn't carried out a single military task," he was quoted as saying by Xinhua on Monday.

Xinhua reported that Cui did not reveal what experiments would be conducted in the coming mission but said that "all experiments would be for civil purposes".

In January 2007, China tested its capability, using a ballistic missile to shoot down an old satellite.

Astronauts for the pending Shenzhou VII mission, to feature a space walk by one of the three-man crew onboard, arrived at the Jiuquan centre on Sunday.

The lift off is between Sept 25 and 30 depending on weather conditions.

China became the third country, after the United States and the former Soviet Union, to send a man into space e with a solo manned flight in 2003, followed by two other astronauts in 2005.

This time, three astronauts will make the trip, including Zhai Zhigang, 42, a former air force pilot, who has been picked to perform the space walk that will be telecast live.

The Shanghai Daily reported that another three shuttles would be launched in 2010 to build a small laboratory in space as part of China's ambition to construct a space station in 2020.

The three spacecraft, Shenzhou VIII, Shenzhou IX and Shenzhou X, were expected to enter space at less than a month's interval of each other, Qi Faren, the chief designer of the Shenzhou VII spacecraft, was quoted as saying.

-- BERNAMA

We provide (subscription-based) 
news coverage in our Newswire service.