TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — China on Wednesday announced plans to send a new telescope to search deep into the universe as it prepares to launch its Chinese space probe. Next, a three-man crew for the orbiting space station.
The telescope, called Xuntian, will be installed by China’s Tiangong space station and orbit with it, according to a statement from Lin Xiqiang, spokesperson and deputy director general of the China Manned Space Agency.
No time frame has been specified for installation. The Chinese Central Broadcasting Corporation said that the telescope will enable surveys and mapping of the sky.
China has been researching the motion of stars and planets for thousands of years, while in modern times, it has pushed to become a leader in space exploration and science.
The announcement came on the eve of the flight of three astronauts – Tang Hongbo, Tang Shengjie and Jiang Xinlin – who will replace the crew who have been at the station for six months.
The launch is expected to take place late Thursday morning. Tang is a veteran who commanded a 2021 space mission for three months.
China has made significant progress in its burgeoning space force and says it plans to send a manned mission to the moon by the end of the decade, while also pursuing other ambitions in space.
The program is largely in competition with the United States but is also seeking to attract support from countries in Europe, Southeast Asia, South America and elsewhere.
China was built for her Its own space station after it was excluded from the International Space StationThis is largely due to US concerns about the control of the program by the People’s Liberation Army, the military wing of the ruling Communist Party.
China’s first manned space mission in 2003 made it the third country after the former Soviet Union and the United States to send a person into space using its own resources.
It is believed that US spending, supply chains and capabilities give it a significant advantage over China at the moment. However, China has taken off in some areas, bringing back samples from the lunar surface for the first time in decades and landing a rover on the far, less-explored side of the moon.
Meanwhile, the US aims to return astronauts to the lunar surface by the end of 2025 as part of its renewed commitment to manned missions, with the help of private sector players such as SpaceX and Blue Origin.
In addition to their lunar programs, the two countries have also separately landed spacecraft on Mars, and China plans to follow in the United States’ footsteps in landing a spacecraft on an asteroid.
China’s official Xinhua News Agency reported that the station’s new crew will also need to perform maintenance on its solar panels, which were damaged by flying debris inside the solar system.
China made a large amount of these particles while destroying one of its satellites with a missile it launched in 2007, in what was considered a sign of strength against its competitors in the United States and its allies.
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