China is planning to launch its third human spaceflight on September 25. The three-person crew of Shenzhou VII will conduct the nation’s first spacewalk during the five-day mission.
The flight will demonstrate China’s growing prowess in space technology. On Sunday, the country broadcast greetings and two Taiwanese songs from its Chang’e-1 lunar orbiter to celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival. On September 6, China also launched its first two two Huanjing disaster monitoring satellites aboard a Long March 2C booster.
Meanwhile, back in Washington, NASA Administrator Mike Griffin and his superiors at the White House have been arguing over how big of a challenge China poses in human spaceflight. The Washington Post reports that officials at the White House Office of Management and Budget sharply edited a statement Griffin sent to Congress earlier this year warning it about China’s space ambitions.
“In his draft comments to Congress, Griffin laid out in strong terms his often-expressed concerns about America’s fading dominance in space, and he warned that China is emerging quickly as a rival.
“A Chinese landing on the moon prior to our own return will create a stark perception that the U.S. lags behind not only Russia, but also China, in space,’ he wrote. The OMB deleted that passage and several others before it went to Congress.”
Even as this debate goes on, the U.S. and China restarted talks on space co-operation over the summer, Aviation Week reports.
“The discussions, after a two-year hiatus, were held in Beijing in July between a U.S. delegation headed by Assistant Administrator Michael F. O’Brien, NASA’s international affairs chief, and a Chinese delegation led by Sun Laiyan and Luo Ge. Sun heads the China National Space Administration, and Luo is CNSA deputy administrator. Both sides agreed to establish working groups on space and Earth science, in addition to addressing a framework for broader cooperation, say CNSA and NASA officials.”
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