Space Day: China’s historic achievements and what next?

CGTN Europe

China designated April 24 as its Space Day to mark the successful launch of its first satellite, on this day in 1970.   Our correspondent Siobhan McCall looks at some of the key milestones  since then.  #Shenzhou20 #Tiangong #ChinaSpace #AstronautsInSpace #SpaceScience #PlanarianResearch #SpaceExploration #SpaceLife

Transcript

00:00In 2003, Yang Liwei became the first Chinese astronaut in space.

00:08The successful Shenzhou 5 mission made China only the third country to launch a crewed

00:13spacecraft after Russia and the United States.

00:16While a world first in lunar exploration was achieved in 2019, China's Chang'e 4 was the

00:23first spacecraft to land on the far side of the moon, the part which is never visible

00:28from Earth.

00:29And five years later, China became the first country to bring back soil and rock samples

00:34from the moon's far side.

00:36The materials collected by Chang'e 6 contain fragments of volcanic rock, providing new insights

00:42into the moon's origins.

00:45Another major milestone is this, the Zhurong rover.

00:47It successfully landed on Mars in 2021, marking China as just the second country to land a

00:53rover on the red planet.

00:55Zhurong has since found evidence that Mars may once have been home to an ancient ocean

01:00spanning a third of its surface.

01:02These are the views from Tiangong, China's own permanent space station.

01:07It was completed in 2022 and can house three astronauts at a time.

01:11It will conduct more than 1,000 research projects over the next 10 to 15 years.

01:23Chinese Taikonauts have also been making history.

01:26The Shenzhou 19 crew who blasted off last October were China's youngest ever crew and includes

01:32Wang Haozhe, the country's first female space engineer.

01:36They've been conducting lots of experiments, including this one on brainwave monitoring equipment.

01:43And they broke a 23-year-old space record set by the United States, performing this historic

01:49nine-hour spacewalk, which is now the world's longest.

01:52And they sent this special message to mark the 10th China Space Day, expressing their wishes

01:57for the continued success of the country's space endeavors.

02:04So what next?

02:07Well, China wants to land astronauts on the moon by 2030 and the space agency says this is

02:13on track.

02:14Remember, there have been no humans on the moon since 1972.

02:17In the meantime, the Tianwen-2 mission is set to launch later this year.

02:22It will collect samples from an asteroid to try and answer questions about the origins of

02:27near-Earth objects.

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