Special to CosmicTribune.com, March 13, 2024

Geostrategy-Direct

By Richard Fisher

Chinese officials and astronauts played their usual role touting advances in China space program during the March 6 to 10 National People’s Consultative Congress (NPC), as it serves to highlight the military-technical leadership of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

Female Chinese astronaut Wang Yaping, whose October 2021 biography on Xinhua states she is a “first-class astronaut in the Astronaut Brigade of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army, with the rank of senior colonel [Brigadier General],” offered an update on China’s Moon program.

In a March 7 Xinhua interview Wang Yaping told reporters:

“Preparatory projects for moon landing training have been carried out. When training for the moon landing officially begins it will be performed in a dedicated simulator. Astronauts are required to constantly learn and master new knowledge.”

In a Feb. 23 posting on Weibo, the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation stated that China new Moon Lander, new Manned Spacecraft and new Long March-10 space launch vehicle had entered prototype development.

Wang Yaping’s update indicates that a dedicated simulator for the Moon Lander may be nearing completion, to soon begin Chinese astronaut Moon landing training.

An early description of China’s International Lunar Research Station Moon Base, targeting the South Pole of the Moon, was offered in a March 4 article in the South China Morning Post:

“The proposed lunar research station, with a radius more than 6 km (3.7 miles), is a sprawling complex larger than a Disney theme park. It will house a command centre, power station, communication hub, scientific facilities and a fleet of robots. The station will even have its own satellites for remote sensing, navigation and communication.”

This article by Chinese technology promoting journalist Stephen Chen, highlighted a recent Chinese journal article proposing that China’s 600 million camera domestic surveillance system called “Skynet,” can guide the creation of a network of surveillance cameras for China’s Moon Base.

Full Text . . . . Current Edition . . . . Subscription Information

  Space news (or propaganda) was highlight at China’s 2024 National People’s Congress