The Shenzhou 7 mission and spacewalk should serve as a reminder that China is building space capabilities that could surpass U.S. technological advances and boost China’s diplomatic and economic ties with its allies, a panel of experts said here Oct. 8.
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By Becky Iannotta
Space News Staff Writer
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China’s success this decade with three human spaceflight missions, including Shenzhou 7 in September, as well as the development of remote-sensing and satellite navigation systems, two satellite export deals and the January 2007 use of an antisatellite weapon to shoot down one of its own satellites punctuate China’s broader national interest to become a “comprehensive power,” the panelists said.
They warned that China’s space program is dominated by young aerospace engineers who could help propel the nation’s advancements past the United States, which faces difficulty replacing its aging aerospace work force.
China’s wide reach into manned space missions, satellite navigation and communications, and Earth monitoring could help the nation gain a foothold in an already competitive commercial space market, the panelists said.
“A newcomer like China [is] going to take a slice of a very stable pie, which means there are going to be other losers. Will it be the U.S., Europe, Russia? It’s going to be something difficult that we’ll have to contend with,” said Kevin Pollpeter, China program manager for the Defense Group Inc.’s Center for Intelligence, Research and Analysis in Washington. “China’s rise in space power is a negative sum consequence for the United States.”
In this photo released by China’s manned space project on Sunday, Oct. 5, 2008 and distributed by China’s Xinhua News Agency, China’s Shenzhou-7 spaceship, is pictured from a small monitoring satellite six seconds after it was released from the spaceship on Sept. 27, 2008. Launched about two hours after Chinese astronaut Zhai Zhigang finished the country’s first spacewalk, the monitoring satellite has sent back over 1,000 pictures of the spaceship, Xinhua said.(AP Photo/Xinhua)
China has closely guarded its space budget, in large part because it is dominated by the military, panelists said. Chinese leaders reported that the Chang’e lunar program cost “no less than building a mile of subway in Beijing,” Pollpeter said.
While concerns linger about China’s January 2007 shootdown of one of its own weather satellites with an antisatellite missile, or A-Sat, China primarily sees space as a diplomatic tool. China prefers jamming and dazzling satellites rather than more aggressive action, said Dean Cheng, senior Asia analyst with CNA Corp. in Alexandria, Va. Jamming is intentional interference with satellite signals; dazzling is illuminating a satellite with a laser in order to blind it.
Themes that can be found throughout the writings concerning China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) indicate China is focused on space deterrence, Cheng said, describing how a country’s military capabilities, economy and communications could be affected by space warfare.
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http://news.yahoo.com/s/space/20081
016/sc_space/chinasspacecapability
couldsurpassunitedstatespanelwarns
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China Eyeing New Satellites?
By Peter J Brown
Asia Times
If China wants to become a dominant space power, it must step up and take a leading role in providing new Earth observation satellite (EOSAT) technology. However, the field is crowded and becoming more so, making this a far more difficult task than previously thought.
China has been slow to make any significant headway in the global satellite communications market – see China lost in SE Asian space (Asia Times Online, October 10, 2008) – and sharing EOSAT technology was sitting at the top of the list when it outlined its regional “space cooperation” priorities in October 2005. That’s when the Asia-Pacific Space Cooperation Organization (APSCO) Convention was signed in Beijing byChina, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Iran, Mongolia, Pakistan, Peru, Thailand and later Turkey.
Just three years later, in early September this year, China launched a 510 kilogram research EOSAT into low Earth orbit, part of a joint project which involved Thailand, Iran, Pakistan, Mongolia, Bangladesh and South Korea. Besides enhancing disaster response capabilities in the region, this EOSAT will be used to monitor and assess natural resources and agricultural trends, among other things.
Almost immediately after, on October 1, Thailand’s Geo-Informatics and Space Technology Development Agency (GISTDA) announced the successful launch of the Thailand Earth Observation Satellite (THEOS). This European-built, Russian-launched satellite has apparently already attracted offers from China, Japan and Sweden….
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http://atimes.com/atimes/China/JJ16Ad02.html
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U.S. Missile Defense In Space?
By Bill Gertz
The Washington Times
Space-based defense
Congress voted recently to approve $5 million for a study of space-based missile defenses, the first time the development of space weapons will be considered since similar work was canceled in the 1990s.
Appropriation of the money for the study was tucked away in a little-noticed provision of the Continuing Resolution passed recently by Congress and followed two years in which Congress rejected $10 million sought for the study. <
Sen. Jon Kyl, Arizona Republican and a key supporter of missile defenses, said approval of the study highlights the need to provide comprehensive protection from the growing threat of missile attack and to limit the vulnerability of vital satellites to attack.
“We have the potential to expand our space-based capabilities from mere space situational awareness to space protection,” Mr. Kyl said in a Senate floor speech.
“In the past 15 years, the ballistic missile threat has substantially increased and is now undeniable,” he said on Sept. 29.
A total of 27 nations now have missile defenses, and last year, over 120 foreign nations fired ballistic missiles, he said. North Korea and Iran both are developing missiles and selling the technology for them, he added.
Mr. Kyl also said the Pentagon’s annual report expressed concerns about accidental or unauthorized launches of long-range missiles from China and about the growing vulnerability of vital satellite systems to attack by anti-satellite weapons, as shown by China’s 2007 anti-satellite weapons test.
Mr. Kyl said he hopes Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, who will choose what government or private-sector agency will conduct the study, will choose the Institute for Defense Analyses, a federally funded research center, to carry out the study.
A Senate report on the study stated that independent groups that could produce it include Energy Department national laboratories, or scientific and technical organizations.
Read the rest:
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/
2008/oct/16/inside-the-ring/
