Why is China building its own space station? Assistant chief designer of China's manned space project responded

On December 17, the Propaganda Department of the CPC Central Committee held a meeting with Chinese and foreign journalists, inviting representatives of party members in the field of manned spaceflight to meet and exchange views with Chinese and foreign journalists around "flying in the sky and writing loyalty to dreams".

There is an International Space Station in space, jointly built by 16 national and regional organizations. Why is China building its own space station, and what is the difference between China's space station and the international space station? The International Space Station faces due decommissioning, and if it is decommissioned as scheduled, the Chinese space station will become the only space station in orbit. At that time, what role will the Chinese space station play in promoting the joint exploration of space by mankind? At the meeting, for the above-mentioned issues related to the space station, Dong Neng, director of the General Technology Bureau of the China Manned Space Engineering Office and assistant to the chief designer of China's manned space engineering, introduced that China's space station has a moderate scale, advanced technology, and complete functions, and has obvious advantages in terms of comprehensive efficiency, livability, application efficiency, and other fields, as well as power technology, energy technology, and information technology.

▲Dong Neng, director of the General Technology Bureau of the China Manned Space Engineering Office and assistant to the chief designer of China's manned space project, answered reporters' questions

Dong Neng said that the aerospace industry is an important symbol of a country's comprehensive strength and a concentrated embodiment of a country's high-tech development level. Manned spaceflight has a higher technical complexity and higher requirements because of the direct involvement of people in flight, because it is necessary to ensure absolute safety. Therefore, manned spaceflight is a pearl in the space industry. The final step in the "three-step" development goal of manned spaceflight approved in 1992 is to build China's space station.

Dong Neng said that the space station can be inhabited for a long time, and it can be built into a national space laboratory in orbit for a long time, in which people can carry out space science experiments and technological experiments with human participation, greatly promote the development of space science, space applications, and new technologies, and promote technological progress in related fields. At the same time, this platform is also a platform with rich comprehensive benefits. China can produce economic benefits in aerospace medicine, aerospace medicine, aerospace breeding, new material research and development, etc., and can play a great role in popular science education, international cooperation, commercial aerospace and other fields. It can be said that the construction of the space station will stimulate the pride of the people of all ethnic groups in the country and help realize the Chinese dream of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.

For foreign space stations, China started relatively late, but it also has the advantage of being a latecomer. China has insisted on several points: first, adhere to independence and self-determination; second, adhere to people-oriented; third, adhere to sustainable development; and fourth, adhere to comprehensive benefits. This makes China's space station have strong Chinese characteristics and the characteristics of the times. Overall, China's space station is moderate in scale, advanced in technology and complete in functions, and has obvious advantages in terms of comprehensive benefits, livability, application efficiency, as well as power technology, energy technology, information technology and other fields.

"Space is the common wealth of mankind and the common home of mankind." Dong Neng stressed that mankind has entered the space age, and the space industry should be the cause of the whole world and all mankind. China advocates the construction of a community with a shared future for mankind, and China's space station and China's manned spaceflight have always adhered to the development concept of peaceful use of space and win-win cooperation, and will build China's space station into an open platform for scientific and technological cooperation for the international community in the future. In the future, it is expected to carry out extensive cooperation in the operation and application of space stations, astronaut selection and joint flights, space science and space technology experiments, and the transformation of technological achievements.

Dong Neng revealed that it is expected that in the next decade, China's space station will become one of the most important space laboratories in the world. This laboratory provides a platform and an opportunity for scientists around the world and peace-loving people around the world.

"I believe that the use of this space station will make a greater contribution to the progress of human civilization!"

Red Star News reporter Yan Yucheng reported from Beijing

Edited by Chai Chang

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