China poised for bigger strides in space exploration: Xi Jinping

Beijing: Chinese President Xi Jinping today
hinted at a major expansion of China's space
programme, saying the country is poised for
"bigger strides" in space exploration after the
success of various manned missions.
"The space dream is part of the dream to make
China stronger. With the development of space
programmes, the Chinese people will take
bigger strides to explore further into the
space," Xi, via a video link, told the country's
three astronauts orbiting the earth in an
experimental space lab Tiangong-1, 300
kilometres above the earth. Xi spoke through
the video call at the Beijing Aerospace Control
Centre which was telecast live by state-run
CCTV.
Greeting the three astronauts who embarked
on their space journey on June 11, he said,
"you have worked and lived in space for 13
days. We all care about you very much".
The crew consists of Nie Haisheng, Zhang
Xiaoguang and Wang Yaping.
The three Chinese astronauts on the country's
fifth and longest manned space mission
yesterday succeeded in manually docking their
spacecraft with the orbiting experimental
space lab.
The spacecraft 'Shenzhou-10' (Divine Craft)
successfully completed a manual docking
procedure with the orbiting Tiangong-1 space
module, the Beijing Aerospace Control Centre
had announced.
Wang, the country's second woman astronaut,
along with the two cosmonauts, is on the
country's longest space mission scheduled to
be completed on June 26 after a fortnight-long
mission.
Nie, commander of the crew, said they felt
very well and were working as scheduled.
"We feel very proud to be able to contribute to
realising the Chinese nation's space dream,"
Nie said.
Wang, China's first teacher in space said the
crew members could rest seven to eight hours
per day.
Speaking of Wang's space lecture on June 20, Xi
said it would play an important role in
fostering students' interest in sciences and
exploring the space.
About 60 million students from 80,000 schools
watched the 40-minute live lecture when Wang
lectured about motion in micro-gravity
environments and the surface tension of liquid
in space, supporting her lecture with various
demonstrations.
The manned space mission has reflected the
courage to defy hardship and explore, a spirit
that would inspire the entire nation, Xi said.
The President spoke to the astronauts from the
Beijing's space centre and the conversation
lasted over 10 minutes.
The astronauts were expected to land in a
designated place in Inner Mongolia on
Wednesday completing the second space
mission to experiment with a temporary space
lab which is orbiting the earth for the past 600
days.
It was expected to be discarded in the next few
months.
China plans to build a Spacelab of its own by
2020 by which time the current international
space station manned by Russian and US crew
was expected to retire.