Yang Liwei: the Cutting-edge Technology Is the Key to Make China a Major Power in Space

Yang Liwei: after decades of development, great achievements have been made in spaceflight and manned spaceflight of China In the early morning of December 8, 2018, the Chang’e 4 flew to the moon, hoping to show the back of the moon to the earth. We took decades to send satellites, spaceship and Long March rockets to space for the first 100 times, and we took 7 years for the second, then 4 years for the third. The number itself is a proof of the super fast development in the passed many years. As to spaceflight, it is the same. China has already become a major player in space, but why we don’t call ourselves a major power in space? Сhairman Xi Jinping also said, we will make China a major power in space. That means there is a gap between the major power in space and us. It is more because of the foundation of technologies, instead of certain single technology, that makes the gap. And such foundation is not the basic one, but the cutting-edge one. So, development of Chinese basic industries or technologies, particularly the cutting-edge basic technologies, are very important to us. They often decide how far we can go. For example, the weakness in materials, electronic components and cutting-edge technologies is very much a constraint to us. If using rockets with the same thrust, some country is able to send 10-kilogram materials to space, but we can send only 5 kilograms, that makes much difference. A cutting-edge foundation is what we urgently need. Of course here many other technologies are involved.

Speaking of the overall development, the USA has already opened the terrestrial space to private developers by involving private companies. More private capital is wanted for the overall development of Chinese aerospace industry. We just mentioned that it has been 40 years since the day we started our reform and opening- up. The 40 years made so great economic development that capital seems not being a problem to us. However, capital is a problem at any time. No matter how much China has been developed, the aerospace industry needs money, lots of money. Therefore, hopefully the system will be further improved. We are calling for military-civilian integration. One point is, how to make better integration of technology, funds and capital, to push forward our aerospace industry?

When the project was set up in 1992, it was scheduled to be completed by 3 steps. By now the first and the second steps were finished. The third step--to establish the space station of China--is what we are now working on. As we all know, China is excluded form using International Space Station whose operation is led by the USA. That pushes us to make our own space station. So now we are doing it. By now the construction is going on well, and the space station of China, according to the plan, will be completed around 2022. The time is scheduled according to the plan set in the initiation of the project. The working life of our space station, as was designed then, should be at least 10 years. The International Space Station got a life extension until 2024. And if nothing special happened, then the Chinese space station would be the only space station flying in space.

How should the industries be developed in post-international space station age? Consideration, should it be assumptions or suggestions to the development, is needed by many industries, so does the aerospace industry. Now the general development strategy of aerospace industry is to explore the near space, and based on which, to go further to the deep space. During our construction and research of space station, we also study for our future manned spaceflight. For example, manned lunar landing. Despite that the project of manned lunar landing is not yet an official project of China, its preparing research and project analysis is now going on. Speaking of engineering, we believe manned lunar landing is the most practical way to explore deep space. It will provide solutions to certain key technical problems and work as a transfer station to reach deeper space to develop more space for human existence.