By Blaine Curcio & Omkar Nikam

August 13, 2019

1 First Chinese Astronaut, Yang Liwei, photographed during a training session on September 27, 2003 [Image Credits: http://thecharlestendellshow.com

China is unleashing its full potential in the space sector by spreading its national and international assets across different verticals of the space industry. Launch vehicles, satellite navigation, remote sensing, and communications are some of the segments where China has created a strong foothold to establish itself in the global space race. In May 2019, China Manned Space Engineering Office (CMSEO) announced that the country would build its own space station by 2020 capable of accommodating three Taikonauts (Chinese Astronauts). With this significant step, China is set to leave a strong footprint for the emerging nations and its Belt-Road Initiative (BRI) partners.

Chinese Space Station (CSS) Program: Lessons from the Past

In the late 1960s, the USA and Russia recorded a series of failures and success to become the space power nations in the world. Similar tangential movements were occurring in Asia, and during this time, China was the only Asian country to initiate its own space program. On July 14, 1967, under the authority of Chinese Communist Party leaders Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai, Project 714 was initiated to put two people in space by 1973. The project was ultimately a failure as it never launched any humans in space. Tracing the history of the Chinese space program, there were a series of downfall and mismanagement which eventually set the country on a backfoot in the space race, falling well behind the US and USSR.
Nevertheless, China embraced its failures and emerged as the third country in 2003 to successfully launch its own manned space mission. During this process, following were the two takeaways for China before emerging as a space power nation:

1. Overcoming Obstacles to Achieve the Set Target: Looking back at the USA and Russia, both countries first conducted series tests for putting a human being in outer space by using animals. During this time, without prior experimentations and preliminary tests, China had laid down its plan to launch a manned space mission called Project 714. Further due to the cultural revolutionary movement in China from 1966 to 1976, the country’s financial ecosystem was halted, leading to a failure of the manned space mission. In 1986, as China was beginning to experience world-beating economic growth, the Chinese Academy of Sciences proposed a crewed space program named Project 863, also known as Shenzhou. With this program, China initiated astronaut training programs, started developing launch vehicles, and performed numerous unmanned test flights between 1999 and 2002. These consistent efforts led to the success of China’s first manned mission in 2003.

2. Development of Technological Capabilities: The Sino-Soviet relations from 1956 to 1966 is one of the reasons why China was ambitious about developing space capabilities in the early 1960s. The USSR’s technology transfer program under the umbrella of Sino-Soviet relations provided many Chinese scientists and university students a platform to engage in various space technology experiments. But due to the conflicting national interests, USSR pulled back from this cooperation. This was the time when China realized that it must individually develop its technological capabilities in space. Tracing the historical records of the space industry, US still has an upper hand in different space verticals mainly due to the country’s privatization policy. While China is the only country to have strong government support in the space technology development especially in the launch vehicles segment. The government funded launch vehicles, Long March series, is well known for its both unmanned and manned space missions.

CSS Program Outlook

The first phase of CSS began in 1992 with the development of Shenzhou spacecraft. After the series of unmanned, animal and manned crew tests, in September 2011 China launched Tiangong-1, the first prototype of the space lab. Later in September 2016, Tiangong-2 was launched to study the significant technological challenges and initiate large modular space station program.

Core module of the Tiangong unveiled for the first time at the 12th China International Aviation and Aerospace Exhibition on November 6, 2018 at Zhuhai, Guangdong Province in China. [Image Credits: http://chinaplus.cri.cn/news/china/9/20181106/206314.html

CSS consists of three core modules and two spacecraft for resupply of manned crew and robotic cargo ships:
1. Modules:

– Core Cabin Module (CCM)
– Laboratory Cabin Module-1
– Laboratory Cabin Module-2

2. Spacecraft

– Shenzhou (Manned Crew Missions)
– Tianzhou (Robotic Cargo Ship Missions)

The final assembly of CSS will weigh approximately 60,000 kg, and it will be fully operational by 2022. Even though China’s individual efforts have been the most to develop its human spaceflight program, CSS has few similarities to the MIR space station. Notably, the Shenzhou spacecraft was designed using Russian space technology. Therefore, its design is very similar to the Soyuz spacecraft. Overcoming the past differences between these two nations, CSS is a good example of how Russia is still a strong binding force behind Chinese space technology.

Importance of CSS in China’s International Partnerships

China had already partnered with Roscomos and European Space Agency (ESA) for its previous human spaceflight missions. As CSS will be open for international research, there are an incoming plethora of opportunities for China’s neighboring nations and its Belt-Road Initiative (BRI) Partners. And this strong movement for developing countries is something that was partly missing with International Space Station (ISS), where only Japan, Russia, Canada, and ESA were the long-term partners of the USA. With CSS, China is set to change the trend by possibly involving African and Asian nations. Following are the two key points that might improve China’s international partnerships for CSS:

1. Chinese Movements in Africa: China has created a strong partnership with African nations like Egypt, Ethiopia, and Algeria by helping them build their space assets in the form of communication and earth observation satellites. This cooperation may further lead to the launch of African academic and industrial experiments onboard CSS. Looking back at Africa, Chinese investments have paved the way for the industrial and economic growth of the continent. While the only area that remains unexplored is the academic and leadership development of the African youths. In the coming years, CSS may provide a potential platform to strengthen Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) foundation and create future African space leaders.

2. Potential Partnership with South-Asian Countries: In South-Asia, India and Pakistan can become the potential partners of China in its large modular space station initiative. China has already selected two experiments from the Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA) and Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) that will fly onboard CSS. For more than a decade, India and China both have been competitors in various industrial segments. But due to the US-China trade war tensions, India is one of the countries facing economic challenges for its foreign import and export trades. And the recent Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit held in June 2019, gave a glance to the world that India might join Russia and China for its new trading system. This might be a starting point of a strong partnership between India and China. On the other hand, Pakistan signed a space cooperation agreement with China on April 27, 2019 in Beijing. The agreement is signed to launch the first Pakistani astronaut in space. Pakistan is also China’s BRI partner, therefore CSS will allow both the countries to explore their technological and economic capabilities on a global scale.

Conclusion

China is becoming the focal point of international relations as it has started spreading its assets across different verticals around the world. While the country’s national interests remain the first priority for its economic growth, CSS will pave the way for China to strengthen its international partnerships with both developed and developing nations.
Overall, CSS will help China to position itself in-line with the USA and Russia. While India is also in the race to emerge as one of the space power nations in the world, the country still has a long way to achieve milestones in the space segment. Currently, India has a strong hold on launch segment through Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) with 94% success rate to date. But has been struggling for a long time to establish itself as space power in terms of human spaceflight and deep space missions. Therefore, China remains the most powerful space emerging nations in the world.