The future of China's space travel plans came into sharper focus
on Thursday when the State Council in principle gave the go-ahead
to a space development plan, plotting China's advances in the field
until 2010.
Addressing the conference where the plan was approved, Chinese
Vice-Premier Zeng Peiyan highlighted the importance of the
11th five-year period (2006-2010) to China's space development.
Zeng revealed that priority would be given to accomplishing a
manned space flight, lunar exploration, developing a new launch
vehicle, and carrying out high-resolution earth observation.
He added that China should pay close attention to the
industrialization of space technologies and forge ahead with
developing telecommunication, navigation and remote sensing
satellites.
The value of space technologies can be measured for their
contribution to the Chinese economy and for their capacity in
maintaining consistently high-quality services in terms of
telecommunication, weather forecasting and maritime investigation,
he said.
Finally, Zeng also called for private investment in the space
sector to help diversify its results.
(Xinhua News Agency May 11, 2007)