Over the last week, two watershed events have occurred in the history of Sino-Russian relations, one with scientific and the other with strategic implications, both highly symbolic of a deepening partnership that is sure to play a role in reshaping our world and the space frontier beyond.\n<\/p>\n
On August 19, Chinese and Russian space officials held their fourth annual conference in Moscow, addressing the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153spheres of cooperation\u00e2\u20ac\u009d between the two nations.<\/font><\/p>\n This year\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s meeting assessed the fulfilment of the four year plan for Sino-Russian cooperation in space. Chinese and Russian manufacturers have cooperated in the construction of launch system components and scientific instruments \u2013 and this partnership played a significant role in the development of China\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s manned orbiter \u00e2\u20ac\u201c the Shenzou \u00e2\u20ac\u201c which is based largely on the Soyuz spacecraft. <\/font><\/p>\n The Sino-Russian partnership has focused on the sharing of technology, avoiding the areas of manned spaceflight and military space interests.<\/p>\n In October 2003, Colonel Yang Liwei became China\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s first man in space, successfully orbiting the Earth in the Shenzou V, and safely returning home. The Shenzou \u00e2\u20ac\u201c meaning \u00e2\u20ac\u0153divine vessel\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u201c incorporates the latest in computer technology, which is largely a product of the first four years of the Sino-Russian partnership. <\/p>\n At the Moscow conference, Anatoly Perminov, director of the Roskosmos, presented an award named in honor of Russia\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s first cosmonaut, Yuri Gagarin, to China\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s first taikonaut, Colonel Liwei. <\/p>\n Liwei\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s successful mission has instilled a great deal of confidence in China\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s space officials, who speak of an operational space station by 2008, and a manned lunar landing shortly thereafter. Ouyang Ziyuan, a scientist involved with China\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s lunar program, told the Beijing Review, \u201cChina should not drag its feet in exploring the moon.\u201d Ziyuan added, \u201cWhoever gets [to the Moon] first will acquire the resources first.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n Later in the conference, Colonel Liwei was invited to travel aboard Russia\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s latest space plane concept, the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Kliper\u00e2\u20ac\u009d, in a trip around the Moon. Perminov assured Xinhau, China\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s press agency that \u00e2\u20ac\u0153complete qualification of the shuttle will be made within the next three years. Then, (the Kliper) will be the main transportation vehicle for cosmonauts.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/p>\n Company News (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});<\/p>\n The Russians envision the Kliper orbiter to be ready for manned flights by 2010, the year NASA has scheduled the STS Orbiter fleet for retirement.<\/p>\n The Kliper orbiter will replace NASA\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s STS Orbiter, and provide a launch system to ferry people and payload to the ISS and possibly to the Moon. The Kliper can carry six crew plus 500 kg in payload, or two crew and an additional 700 kg in payload. It will launch atop a modified Soyuz rocket, and can glide onto a runway or parachute to a landing site in Central Asia\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s desert region. The European Space Agency has expressed interest in the Kliper orbiter, which will likely compete with NASA\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s next generation shuttle-derived launch systems. <\/p>\n The Moscow space conference fell upon the day commencing the largest joint military exercises between China and Russia, involving air, land and sea forces of the two nations. Named \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Peace Mission 2005\u00e2\u20ac\u009d, the operation was hailed a success by the Chinese and Russian military communities, further expanding the orbits of Sino-Russian technical and strategic cooperation. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Over the last week, two watershed events have occurred in the history of Sino-Russian relations, one with scientific and the other with strategic implications, both highly symbolic of a deepening partnership that is sure to play a role in reshaping our world and the space frontier beyond. On August 19, Chinese and Russian space officials […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-42301","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42301"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42301"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42301\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42301"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42301"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42301"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}