A Timeline of China’s Advancements in Spaceflight

Chin@Strategy

China successfully launches its first biological experiment to the edge of space: a rocket carrying eight white mice.

China launches its first satellite, which broadcasts the patriotic anthem “The East is Red” as it orbits.

China launches a remote-sensing satellite that orbits the planet and returns to Earth on Nov. 29.

Deng Xiaoping approves a science and technology project code-named “863” to develop the country’s crewed spacecraft.

Jiang Zemin approves “Project 921,” a plan for China’s crewed space program that included the goal of build a space station by 2020.

A Long March 3B rocket carrying an American company’s satellite explodes 22 seconds after liftoff, killing at least 63 people as wreckage and flaming fuel landed on a Chinese village. An American investigation into the accident later led to federal lawsuits against U.S. satellite makers for sharing technology with Chinese officials.

China launches and recovers an uncrewed spacecraft, Shenzhou 1, for the first time, a key step toward sending the country’s astronauts into orbit.

Shenzhou 5 launches into orbit with the first Chinese astronaut, Yang Liwei, aboard.

China conducts its first test of an antisatellite weapon, matching an ability demonstrated by the United States and Russia.

The first lunar probe built by China, Chang’e 1, launches from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center.

Zhai Zhigang becomes the first Chinese astronaut to walk in space.

China completes its first crewed space docking when the Shenzhou 9 space capsule meets the prototype Tiangong-1 laboratory in orbit.

China’s robotic Chang’e 3 probe lands on the moon, deploying the Yutu rover.

A second prototype orbital laboratory, Tiangong-2, launches to replace Tiangong-1.

The prototype Tiangong-1 lab, abandoned and out of control, crashes into the southern Pacific Ocean after re-entering Earth’s atmosphere.

Chang’e 4 becomes the first spacecraft to make a soft landing on the far side of the moon.

The Long March 5B, one of the most powerful rockets operating on the planet, completes an uncontrolled re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere and some of its debris lands on a village in Ivory Coast in West Africa.

Xi Jinping announces the opening of Beidou 3, a global satellite navigation system providing GPS-like services to China and other customers.

Chang’e 5 returns to Earth with samples from the moon.

The Tianwen-1 spacecraft sets down on Mars with the Zhurong rover, completing China’s first landing on another planet.

The Shenzhou 12 mission takes three Chinese astronauts to Tianhe, the initial module of the Tiangong space station.

The Xihe satellite for solar observation launches.

China launches Wentian, the second module of the space station.

Mengtian, the third and final module, launches and then docks the next day with the space station complex, completing construction of the Tiangong outpost in orbit.

The Shenzhou 15 mission takes off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, carrying three Chinese astronauts toward the completed Tiangong space station. They dock the following day, marking the first time that six occupants are aboard at once and beginning the permanent occupancy by astronauts of the space station.

Research by Li You.

NYT

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