China becomes world leader in number of space launches
Jul 6, 2012 17:19 Moscow Time
Vasili Kashin Jul 6, 2012 17:19 Moscow Time
In the first half of 2012, China has for the first time become the global leader in the number of space launches. China carried out ten space launches, Russia – nine, and the United States in third with eight.
Last year China was ahead of the United States for the first time. The Asian state had launched 19 carrier rockets, while the US only 18. At the same time, China was far behind Russia. Last year 32 carrier rockets were launched from Russian space launch sites. Two more rockets were launched from the French tropical Kuru spaceport and one from the sea launch platform belonging to the Russian-American joint venture “Sea Launch”.
“Despite the results of the first half of the year, China will still be lagging behind Russia this year,” says Vasily Kashin from the Centre for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies. “Russia is planning to launch 36 carrier rockets and that does not include the ‘Sea Launch’ program or launches from Kuru spaceport. And China is planning to launch 21 carrier rockets. So far, Russia has many more advantages over China in terms of its experience in managing orbital stations and its research of deep space. Russia has been manufacturing carrier rockets of the heavy class for a long time already, and China is only starting to develop them. And Russia’s manned space and carrier rocket program gives all reasons to hope that it will be able to keep the qualitative advantage. Certain Russian technologies, like compact nuclear reactors for spacecraft for example, are still unique and inaccessible to China.”
The difference between Russia’s and China’s space programs is that the Russian program is export-oriented. Half of Russia’s launches last year was fulfilling export orders or under joint space programs with other countries. In China, only three launches were carried out as part of the international cooperation program.
The advantage of China nowadays is the high reliability of its spacecraft and equipment.Thus, for instance, last year only one launch was a failure. The potential of the Chinese space industry might grow significantly, believes Vasily Kashin.
“China has started designing several new types of carrier rockets, including a giant CZ-9 which will have a 3000-ton take-off weight and Earth orbit carrying capacity of more than 100 tons. Not long ago, China became the second country after Russia to produce a 120-ton liquid rocket engine.”
The successful launch of the Shenzhou-9 spacecraft allowed the testing of many systems of the Tiangong-1 orbital module – a prototype of the future space station. Tiangong has only one dock, which means the crew can only work on the module for twenty days. However, this is quite sufficient to get the required experience in using the life support systems of the future orbital station.
Considering the successful efforts in developing the first Chinese orbital station, plans to conduct research of the Deep Space Chinese space program in the next decade might be comparable to the programs implemented in the Soviet Union in the 1980s. But this time the Chinese programs will be implemented on the modern technical level. The result could be a new competition in space between China and the United States with participation of Russia and the European Union. As the experience of the Cold War has shown, such competition might be an important factor in the progress of all humanity.
