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China and Russia Push Ahead in Their Space Programs, ESA Talks Moon & Mars

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China to Test Recoverable Moon Orbiter

(EIRNS)—China’s Chang’e-5 mission, which will send a spacecraft to the Moon, set down a lander, collect samples, blast off from the Moon, and return the rocks and dust to Earth, is "proceeding smoothly," according to China State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry spokesman Wu Zhijian. Its progress is reported by Russia’s RIA Novosti news agency. The Chang’e-4 mission, scheduled for later this year, will circle the Moon and return to Earth, to "prove that our current technical plan can actually bring Chang’e-5 back safely," Chief Designer Hu Hao said. He explained that the Chang’e-4 mission is necessary because reentry cannot be simulated on Earth.

Russia is also pressing ahead, focussed on its new rocket launcher, the Angara. Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu paid an inspection visit of the Plesetsk cosmodorme on Aug. 27, to see the preparations for the first test launch of the new Angara-5 medium-lift rocket. The test, RIA Novosti reports, will take place at the end of December.

The Angara series is designed so that the number of stages and boosters and different configurations can accommodate a wide range of payloads. The Angara-1, tested in July, is the smallest version. The Angara-3 will be a manned launcher, to replace the Soyuz, and the Angara-5 will replace the Proton, capable of putting 25 tons of payload into low Earth orbit. The Proton has had numerous failures in the past four years. Angara, which has been developed off and on over the past 20 years, will be the first rocket built in post-Soviet Russia.

These developments should be contrasted to those in the United States, where a July report by the National Research Council reports that NASA’s heavy lift (70-ton payload) Space Launch System is underfunded and will not be ready by 2017. NASA basically admitted as much earlier this week.

A Bit of Future in Europe: ESA Talks about Moon and Mars

Celebrating 50 years of European space programs, the European Space Agency gathered prominents from the continent’s space research and tech community at the ESA satellite control centre (European Space Operations Centre, ESOC) in Darmstadt, Germany yesterday. Thomas Reiter, former German astronaut on the International Space Station, and now director of the ESA program for manned missions, said at the ceremony that if the required effort were made, European astronauts could land and walk on the Moon in 2025, and on Mars 10 years thereafter.

With reference to the "robots only" faction, Reiter argued that it is crucial to have humans in outer space: "With humans, we have more options than with robots, to deal with the conditions on site."

Much of the ESA plan for the future depends on the Ariane 6 space carrier, which is still the object of fierce battling between committed spaceflight proponents and EU budget cutters. However, a sign of hope is that a few days ago, "Eurocryospace" was established in Bremen, as a Franco-German joint venture between the two firms, Airbus Space and Defence and Air Liquide, for development of new cryogenic space engines. Brigitte Zypries, chief space coordinator of the German government, called this venture a "bridge from Earth to space."