space exploration: The Chinese Space Program

China launched its first satellite in 1970 and then began the Shuguang program to put an astronaut into space, but the program was twice halted, ending in 1980. In the 1990s, however, China began a new program, and launched the crewless Shenzhou 1, based on the Soyuz, in 1999. The Shenzhou, like the Soyuz, is capable of carrying a crew of three. In Oct., 2003, Shenzhou 5 carried a single astronaut, Yang Liwei, on a 21-hr, 14-orbit flight, making China only the third nation to place a person in orbit. A second mission, involving two astronauts, occurred in Oct., 2005. China also launched an unmanned moon mission in Oct., 2007. In June, 2012, the three-person Shenzhou 9, which included China's first woman astronaut, manually docked with the Tiangong 1 prototype space station, which had launched the year before, and the crew of Shenzhou 10 docked with the station in 2013. Tiangong 2, a testing laboratory and precursor to a more permanent space station, was launched in Sept., 2016, and the crew of Shenzhou 11 docked with the station for a monthlong mission the following month.

Sections in this article:

• Introduction
• The Chinese Space Program
• The Space Shuttle
• Space Stations
• The Soyuz Program
• The Apollo Program
• Human Space Exploration
• Interplanetary Probes
• Lunar Probes
• Satellites and Probes
• Bibliography

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