CHINA.docx - 1 China Space Exploration Name: Course:...

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China Space Exploration
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Question 1.
The Chinese space program is managed by the China National Space Administration
(CNSA). The operation of this administration can be dated back to the 1950s, when China
initiated its missile program responding to American threats.
The original spaceflight move by China was in response to the October 4th 1957 Soviet
Union Sputnik 1. China wanted to equal itself as a superpower. It did so through the adoption of
project 581 which was purposed to be set up in the orbit by the year 1959 as the country was
celebrating the 10th anniversary of the PCR's founding ( (Yilin, 1993).
The initial plan was that these movement was to be carried out in three different phases.
These are through the development of the sounding rockets followed by the launching of small
satellites and finally finishing up the program by large satellites. Out of this purpose on July 19th
19 64 China saw its first successful launch and recovery of a sounding rocket which carried a
biological experiment (a mice.)
After successfully launching this rocket, in the quest to stand as a superpower in the
world China started its own crude Space program on July 14th 1967. Human occupancy in
Chinese spacecraft was affected in 1968. In the month of August 1968 China developed its first
heavy-lift satellite launch vehicle. These can be termed as the establishing stage of heavy
spaceflight vessels. China also saw a successful launch on April 24th 1970 when it launched its
second satellites. This went down in history as the heaviest satellite to be ever placed in the orbit
by any nation as its weight exceeded all the combined masses of the satellites placed in the orbit