Chinese Space Station - International Co-operation

International Co-operation

China, Russia and Europe work together towards manned deep space exploration; space stations allow the development of technology required for these missions. The psychosocial experiment Mars-500 provides the ground-based studies to complement orbital research in preparation for a planned manned mission to the planet Mars. Yinghuo-1, a Chinese Mars-exploration space probe, intended to be the first Chinese spacecraft to explore Mars, was launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, on 8 November 2011, along with the Russian Fobos-Grunt sample return spacecraft, which was intended to visit Mars' moon Phobos. Shortly after launch, Fobos-Grunt was expected to perform two burns to depart Earth orbit bound for Mars. However, these burns did not take place, leaving the probe stranded in orbit. On 17 November 2011, Chinese state media reported that the probe had been declared lost by the CNSA. Anatoly Perminov, head of the Russian Federal Space Agency, revealed in September 2006 in RIA Novosti that Russia and China were working on lunar exploration as partners, and that the Russian-Chinese Space Sub-Commission's priority was to conclude a joint lunar exploration agreement by the end of that year. The first Chinese Lunar Exploration Program un-crewed lunar orbiter Chang'e 1 was successfully launched on October 24, 2007, making China the fifth nation to successfully orbit the Moon.

Cooperation in the field of manned space flight between the CMSEO and the Italian Space Agency was examined in 2011, participation in the development of China manned space stations and cooperation with China in the fields such as astronauts flight, and scientific research was discussed. Potential areas and ways for future cooperation in the fields of development of manned space station, space medicine and space science have also been discussed during the meeting.