China's booming space program might put the US and Russia to shame

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REUTERS/Jason Lee

Space exploration for China didn't exactly blast off.

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By the time China launched its first satellite, the US had already landed men on the moon — twice. And China didn't send a person into space until 2003, even then by relying heavily on Russian hardware.

But that has all changed. China's space program is booming.

"[T]he Chinese are ... vaulting ahead," writes astronomer Chris Impey wrote in his book "Beyond: Our Future in Space." "Their Long March rocket is original and has quickly eclipsed Russian rockets."

Today the China National Space Administration (CNSA) continues to innovate, channeling national ambition into an aggressive moon exploration program and a brand-new space station.

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"Unlike one of the stereotypes that they're just sort of copying our technology, they're actually innovating," Impey recently told NPR's Fresh Air host Terry Gross. "They have very young engineers in their space program — very keen, very well trained, very ambitious."

Keep scrolling to see what China's impressive space agency has been up to lately.

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The Chinese National Space Administration (CNSA) may have started exploring space later than agencies like NASA or ESA, but it's quickly catching up.

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REUTERS/Jason Lee

That's largely thanks to its fleet of "Long March" rockets. The latest models look similar to SpaceX's giant Falcon 9 rockets.

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The rockets have powerful engines and thrusters, and can carry up to 13 tons into orbit around the Earth.

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REUTERS/Stringer

This means a Long March is capable of carrying satellites, robotic rovers, and even humans into space.

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REUTERS/Jason Lee
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China is continuing to build more and more advanced models of Long March rockets.

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Reuters/Bobby Yip

For example, it launched the powerful 3C in 2014. The rocket carried an experimental spacecraft that China wants to use for a future lunar mission.

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REUTERS/Stringer
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China also builds its own spacecraft, called the Shenzhou. The first mission — Shenzhou-1 — was a test flight without any crew on board.

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REUTERS/Stringer

Today the Shenzhou ferries taikonauts (Chinese astronauts) into space.

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A not-to-scale model of the Shenzhou spacecraft. Reuters/Jason lee
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Shenzhou spacecraft are loosely based on Russia's Soyuz vehicles. They both have three separate modules, but the Chinese version is larger and made with different materials.

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REUTERS/Stringer

Unlike NASA, whose astronauts have to hitch rides into space from Russia, China has the rocket power to launch its own space travelers.

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REUTERS/China Daily
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The spacecraft can snugly fit three people.

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REUTERS/CCTV

And as soon as China successfully built the Shenzhou, it didn't waste any time using it to send taikonauts into space.

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Taikonaut Wang Yaping trains for a mission inside this spinning machine at the Beijing Aerospace City. REUTERS/Stringer
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On June 16, 2012, taikonauts Jing Haipeng (right), Liu Wang (center) and Liu Yang (left) were sent off in style from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in Gansu province.

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REUTERS/Jason Lee

They all piled inside a spacecraft atop a Long March 2-F rocket and blasted off from the launch center, beginning the Shenzhou-9 mission — China's second-most-recent crewed spaceflight.

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Liu Yang (right) became China's first female taikonaut that day.

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REUTERS/Tyrone Siu

The Shenzhou spacecraft are all designed to float about 213 miles above Earth — just a few miles below the International Space Station. Taikonauts usually only spend a few weeks at a time in orbit.

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AP Photo/Xinhua News Agency, Zha Chunming
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Here, a taikonaut has suited up and ventured into the vacuum of outer space to perform maintenance during the Shenzhou-7 mission.

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AP Photo/Xinhua

He even carried a People's Republic of China flag for part of the dangerous task.

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AP Photo/Beijing Space Command and Control Center via Xinhua
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All the spacecraft come with a landing pod that looks similar to NASA's Orion spacecraft.

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Taikonauts Zhang Xiaoguang (left), Nie Haisheng (center), and Wang Yaping (right) returned to Earth in 2013 in one of these capsules. They had just completed a 15-day mission orbiting Earth as part of the Shenzhou-10 mission. REUTERS/Stringer

But China isn't just launching taikonauts into space: It has its sights set on the moon. The space agency's Chang'e-3 probe landed there in December, 2013.

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The mission marked the first soft landing of a probe on the moon in almost 40 years.

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YouTube/CCTV

The probe carried CNSA's 300-pound "Jade Rabbit" rover. The rover is now out of commission, but China still has a working telescope on the moon.

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AP Photo/CCTV VNR via AP video

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China also has its own space station. It's called Tiangong 1, and it launched in 2011. Here's a model of what it looks like:

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AP Photo/Kin Cheung

The tiny space station (left) is designed to dock with one of the agency's Shenzhou spacecraft (right).

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China has several future moon missions planned, and it recently announced that it's recruiting partner countries to help it build a bigger, better space station.

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AP Photo / Xinhua, Zhao Jianwei

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It's clear China is becoming a big player in space exploration, but right now it's illegal for scientists at NASA to collaborate with China.

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The People's Republic of China flag and the U.S. Stars and Stripes fly along Pennsylvania Avenue near the U.S. Capitol in Washington during Chinese President Hu Jintao's state visit, January 18, 2011. REUTERS/Hyungwon Kang
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