China launches its first sea-based space rocket
- Posted By
10Pointer
- Categories
World Affairs
- Published
7th May, 2020
-
- China launched a space rocket from sea for the first time, the latest step in Beijing’s push to become a major space power.
- China now spends more than Russia and Japan on its civil and military space programmes — unveiling ambitious plans for missions to the moon and beyond in the coming decade.
- A Long March 11 rocket was launched from a ship in the Yellow Sea. This is the first time that China has (tested a) launch vehicle at sea.
- The rocket carried two experimental satellites and five commercial ones.
- Earlier this year, China became the first nation to land a rover on the far side of the moon.
- It also unveiled ambitious plans to build a research base on the lunar surface, send a probe to Mars and build a space station in Earth orbit.
- In 2003, China became only the third nation to have the capability of launching humans into space.
- And with sea launches, China now has the ability to deploy satellites from a mobile platform.
- Most recently, Russian-backed firm Sea Launch used a floating platform to launch dozens of rockets between 1999 and 2014.
