Space Governed by the Presidency of the Council

With the launch of the first taikonaut, Yang Liwei, in 2005 and the first Tiangong-1 orbital laboratory (Heavenly Palace) in 2011, China became the fourth great space power after the United States, Russia and Europe. Equipped with ever-more powerful Long March launch vehicles, capable of launching increasingly heavy loads, it revealed ambitious development programmes linked to the stations orbiting around the Earth, to the landing of taikonauts on the Moon and to human journeys to Mars. Meanwhile, with precise and successful deadlines, it demonstrated the development of abilities through which the plans could undoubtedly and concretely evolve. The Chinese space agency, China National Space Administration, had reiterated its interest in collaborating in the ISS international space station’s activities but because of the block imposed by the United States, the only collaboration permitted was restricted to the international AMS-2 experiment for research into antimatter, led by Nobel Prize-winner Samuel Ting and by Professor Roberto Battiston, of which it had built a part of the instrument that was installed on the central beam of the ISS. In fact, when it was launched with the Endeavour shuttle in June 2011 (STS-134), the Chinese scientists involved in the experiment were not allowed to enter the Kennedy Space Centre.