China is capable of sending a manned mission to the Moon within the next decade, if it so wishes, Nasa administrator Michael Griffin has said.  The U.S. space agency plans to return people to the lunar surface by 2020 using its new Orion spacecraft, but it is just possible the first people on the Moon since the Apollo 17 mission in 1972 could be planting a flag with five stars, not 50. In 2003, China became only the third country to launch a person into orbit.

Speaking to the BBC News website during a visit to London, Dr Griffin said: "Certainly it is possible that if China wants to put people on the Moon, and if it wishes to do so before the United States, it certainly can. As a matter of technical capability, it absolutely can." Chinese officials say there is no plan and no timetable for a Moon landing, and have expressed doubt that one could be made by 2020. But Sun Laiyan, chief of the China National Space Administration (CNSA), told journalists last year that an eventual lunar excursion was inevitable.

On whether it mattered who reached the Moon next, Dr Griffin replied: "I'm not a psychologist, so I can't say if it matters or not. That would just be an opinion and I don't want to air an opinion in an area that I'm not qualified to discuss." But there is a perception among some in the space industry that America's long-held dominance in space exploration is slipping as other nations enter the fray. A recent report by the US consultancy firm, Futron, found other countries were expanding their space capabilities at an astonishing rate, "threatening US space leadership".

China has sent two manned missions into space over the last five years. The first, in 2003, carried "yuhangyuan" (astronaut) Yang Liwei into orbit for 21 hours aboard the Shenzhou 5 spacecraft. On the second, two spacemen flew aboard the Shenzhou 6 craft, spending nearly five days in orbit. Another manned mission is set to go ahead in October, just after the Beijing Olympic Games.

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News category: China

Published on this site: Jul. 16, 2008
Source:news.bbc.co.uk