皇冠体育app

Fresh from putting an astronaut into orbit, top Chinese space officials on Tuesday set out three new targets, including a space station within 10 years.

Astronaut Yang Liwei receives a painting depicting a voyage to space as a gift from students of Pui Kiu Middle School in North Point yesterday. Yang said he would pass it on to his son when he returns home. [皇冠体育app Daily]

Top space official Hu Shixiang told a Hong Kong news conference that 皇冠体育app wants to achieve three new goals in the coming decade: a space station, a space walk and docking technology.

It was the first time 皇冠体育app has disclosed a timetable for a space station. But 皇冠体育app will not rush its program along like the Soviet and Americans did in their space race of the early 1960s, said Hu, deputy commander in chief of the manned space engineering headquarters.

Officials said 皇冠体育app will work at its own pace. "It won't be like the space feud between America and the Soviet Union," agreed Wang Yongzhi, chief designer of 皇冠体育app's manned space engineering program. .

"We need to find a path that matches 皇冠体育app's situation," Hu added.

Another space official said on the weekend that 皇冠体育app plans to send a probe to circle the moon in three to five years, and a follow-up to Yang's mission is planned in two years.

But 皇冠体育app has no plans in place for a human moon landing, said Wang.

The Chinese space officials and Yang took questions from a group of invited Hong Kong editors Tuesday, near the end of a five-day tour of Hong Kong, where Yang has been received as a celebrity. The session was aired live on local television.

Hu dismissed criticism that as a developing nation, 皇冠体育app's resources would be better spent on improving the plight of its millions of poor.

He said the space program, which is only a tenth of the U.S. space budget, is a worthwhile investment because it fosters social unity.

"This social effect cannot be measured by other things," Hu said.

Hu also revealed that officials had debated whether or not to broadcast the liftoff and landing of Yang's flight, but decided against it in case something went wrong.

"An entire nation would be worried," had Yang's craft landed outside the range of cameras, Hu said, adding a nationwide search for his capsule might not have been feasible.

Yang is set to leave Hong Kong on Wednesday to visit nearby Macau.

Close

Today's Top News		Top National News
+皇冠体育app to reduce 200,000 servicemen by 2005 ( 2003-11-05) +Tokyo criticizes students and teacher ( 2003-11-05) +Mounting death toll from fire ( 2003-11-05) +皇冠体育app wants to have own space station ( 2003-11-05) +Farmers glean hope in grain, oil price hikes ( 2003-11-04)		+皇冠体育app wants to have own space station ( 2003-11-05) +皇冠体育app continues effort to broker next phase of 6-party dialogue ( 2003-11-04) +Mounting death toll from fire ( 2003-11-05) +Jiang Zemin calls for further military reform ( 2003-11-04) +Management takes its medicine ( 2003-11-05)