China's 'space Dream': A Long March To The Moon

Beijing, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 24th Nov, 2020 ) :China's launch this week of an unmanned spacecraft aimed at bringing back lunar rocks -- the first attempt by any nation to retrieve samples from the Moon in four decades -- underlines just how far the country has come in achieving its "space dream".

Beijing has poured billions into its military-run space programme, with hopes of having a crewed space station by 2022 and of eventually sending humans to the Moon.

China has come a long way in its race to catch up with the United States and Russia, whose astronauts and cosmonauts have had decades of experience in space exploration.

Beijing sees its military-run space programme as a marker of its rising global stature and growing technological might.

Here is a look at China's space programme through the decades, and where it is headed: Mao's vow Soon after the Soviet Union launched Sputnik in 1957, Chairman Mao Zedong pronounced "we too will make satellites.

" It took more than a decade, but in 1970, China's first satellite lifted into space on the back of a Long March rocket.

Human space flight took decades longer, with Yang Liwei becoming China's first astronaut to go into space in 2003.

As the launch approached, concerns over the viability of the mission caused Beijing to cancel a nationwide live television broadcast at the last minute.

Despite the fears, the launch went off smoothly, with Yang orbiting the Earth 14 times during his 21-hour flight aboard the Shenzhou 5.

Since then, China has sent men and women into space with increasing regularity.