The same rocket will also launch China’s first Mars rover and a lunar sample return probe by the end of the year. The crew of Shenzhou 10, China's fifth human spaceflight mission, salutes after a safe landing in inner Mongolia on the morning of June 26 local time in 2013. “He was treated very unfairly, as were many others in this case. Posted on 24/09/2020 Author Godspower Comment(0) My Concern Is When ISS Would Come To Its End – Jim Bridenstine. “In order to be able to have the United States of America have a presence in low Earth orbit, we have to be prepared for what comes next,” he added. Original article on SPACE.com. “It would be a tragedy, if, after all of his time, and all of this effort, we were to abandon low Earth orbit and cede that territory.”. He explained that the microgravity of ISS offered great potential for scientific advances, from innovations in pharmaceuticals to printing 3D human organs to the creation of artificial retinas to treat people with macular degeneration. "What to watch for now is the debate going on within China regarding whether to combine the accomplishment of the Shenzhou program and the robotic lunar exploration program, Chang’e, toward a human mission to the moon," said Johnson-Freese. Get breaking space news and the latest updates on rocket launches, skywatching events and more! NASA chief Jim Bridenstine told lawmakers Wednesday it was crucial for the US to maintain a presence in Earth’s orbit after the International Space Station is decommissioned so that China does not gain a strategic advantage. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. “China is rapidly building what they call the ‘Chinese International Space Station,’ and they’re rapidly marketing that space station to all of our international partners,” said Bridenstine. The successful landing of China's latest manned space mission in June cast a spotlight on the country's growing human spaceflight skills as it hones the capabilities needed to build a huge, permanently crewed space station. By 2018 this had slipped to 2020-2023. By 2013, the space station's core module was planned to be launched earlier, in 2018, followed by the first laboratory module in 2020, and a second in 2022. Aboard the Tiangong 1, the Shenzhou 10 crew tested space medicine and conducted various technology experiments. Please deactivate your ad blocker in order to see our subscription offer. "It would be a tragedy, if, after all of his time, and all of this effort, we were to abandon low Earth orbit and cede that territory," the NASA chief added. China’s main space contractor is aiming to carry out more than 40 launches in 2020, including lunar, interplanetary and space infrastructure missions. Ryan Clarke, a senior research fellow at the National University of Singapore’s East Asia Institute, told Asia Times that the hiccup was unlikely to hold back China’s ambitious space program and that the country may have another try shortly. Your email address will not be published. In a post-landing press conference, Wang Zhaoyao, Director General of the China Manned Space Agency, said, "With a complete success of this spaceflight mission as a milestone, China's manned space program will enter into a new phase of manned space station construction.". This site, like many others, uses small files called cookies to help us improve and customize your experience. Bridenstine warned the lawmakers this was critical to maintain US space supremacy in the face of a planned Chinese space station that Beijing hopes will be operational by 2022. Receive mail from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors? He added that more failures would be hard to avoid as China presses ahead with its plan to launch components for its own space station and when China’s access to advanced parts and technology in the West is being curtailed. The first parts of the ISS were launched in 1998 and it has been continuously lived in since 2000. Chinese President Xi Jinping came to the Beijing Aerospace Control Center (BACC) on June 24, 2013, and spoke with the three astronauts aboard the Tiangong-1 orbiter. "But what China has today that the U.S. does not is patience and political will," Johnson-Freese said. The first stage was manned space launches, realized in 2003 when Yang Liwei became the first Chinese national to enter space, and the second phase of conducting extravehicular activities – or a space walk – as well as a rendezvous mission, was achieved in 2008 during the Shenzhou 7 mission and in 2017 with the Tiangong 2 space lab. The stumble is the latest in a series.