China leading space race

CHINA aims to land its first astronauts on the moon within a decade at the dawn of a new era of manned space exploration - a race it now leads thanks to the US decision to drop its lunar programme.

US President Barack Obama earlier this month said he planned to drop the costly Constellation space programme, a budget move that would kill off future moon exploration if it is approved by Congress.

In contrast, China has a fast-growing human spaceflight project that has notched one success after another, including a spacewalk by astronauts in 2008, with plans for a manned lunar mission by around 2020.

The turnaround is viewed as yet another example of the Asian power's rising profile and technical prowess. 'Overall, China is behind the US in technology and in actual presence in space - the US operates dozens of satellites, the Chinese only a few,' said James Lewis, of the US-based Centre for Strategic and International Studies. 'The real concern is the trend: China's capacities are increasing while the US, despite spending billions of dollars, appears to be stuck in a rut.' The Americans have achieved the only manned lunar missions, making six trips from 1969 to 1972.

But China has been gaining in the space race after launching a manned programme in 1992, and sending its first astronaut into space in 2003. Only Russia and the United States had previously put a man into space independently. China aims to launch an unmanned rover on the moon's surface by 2012 ahead of the manned lunar mission a decade from now.

China sees its space programme as a symbol of its global stature, growing technical expertise, and the Communist Party's success in turning around the fortunes of the formerly poverty-stricken nation. Experts see its push for the moon, while Washington backs off, as further confirmation of its emergence as a superpower.