14 DAY TRIAL // At a congressional hearing held on Wednesday, May 11, experts from across the board met to discuss the implications that the Chinese military and civilian space plans have on the United States and its own capabilities.
This is becoming really important, as the Asian nation is ramping up its space capabilities considerably. It already sent orbiters to the Moon and astronomers into space, and carried out its first spacewalk three years ago.
For 2011, the China National Space Administration (CNSA) plans to conduct the first orbital docking maneuver, which will enable it to push forward with plans to construct the nation's first space station.
This is another aspect that is making the US uneasy. China never made it a secret that its space facilities will have military applications as well, in addition to civilian and scientific ones. At the same time, the country already demonstrated a couple of years back that it has the ability to destroy satellites.
At the new hearing, called “The Implications of China's Military and Civil Space Programs,” attendants discussed all this and more, weighing all the factors involved with the Chinese space programs.
“There's still a lack of clear understanding of what Beijing's goals are, and how we interact with those,” conference attendant Ben Baseley-Walker tells Space. He is a member of the non-profit organization Secure World Foundation, which is committed to space sustainability.
According to George Washington University (GWU) Space Policy Institute visiting scholar Alanna Krolikowski, the Asian nation plans to have its first space station complete by 2015 to 2022. After that, it will undoubtedly set its eyes on the Moon.
China now plans to have a concept study detailing the requirements of a Moon landing ready by 2020, so that it could then get on with planning the landing. The reason why these developments are dangerous to the US is because they challenge the American dominance in space.
This dominance gives the US a huge tactical advantage on the battlefield. If China manages to out-compete the United States, than that advantage will be transfer to Asia.
“What concerns me most about the Chinese space program is that, unlike the US, it is being led by the People’s Liberation Army (PLA),” Congressman Frank Wolf (R-VA) said at the meeting. He is the chairman of the House Appropriations Committee commerce, justice and science subcommittee.
“There is no reason to believe that the PLA’s space program will be any more benign than the PLA’s recent military posture,” he added in his testimony.
“The US has no business cooperating with the PLA to help develop its space program,” he added, in response to recent proposals calling for NASA and the government to work with CNSA and Beijing.
But not everyone approves of not cooperating with the Asian country. “As China invests in and derives greater benefit from space, it will acquire the same stake in creating a predictable, stable, safe and sustainable space environment that the US, Canada, Japan and European and other countries already share,” Krolikowski said.