With the development of the CZ-5 and assembly of their first space station, the only missing pieces of that scheme (at least on the lower half) will be development of the lunar lander and the "TLI" boosters.
The studies performed by ESA have shown that a lunar mission based on Ariane 5/EELV/CZ-5 class launcher is not practical.You need at least a 50 ton to LEO capability to achieve human flight to the Moon.
So, judging by the picture, China is going to "copy" the whole Soviet space program?Soyuz-->Salut-->Mir.
What's wrong with that? If the program is resource-constrained, then a stepping-stone approach seems to make a lot of sense. Just add capabilities as you can afford them.
It`s just that they are going to run out of the Soviet program fairly soon. I wonder what they will do then.
Fly tourists...
It`s just that they are going to run out of the Soviet program fairly soon.
Fifteen years from now.
Despite of what this thespacereview.com article says, the mentioned Long Lehao, Rong Yi 2008 paper clearly stated a minimum of 6 LM-5 launches are required for a manned lunar landing mission and is obviously an unfavorable approach.
I'm sure the Chinese would like to send humans to the Moon; to orbit it at least.
So, judging by the picture, China is going to "copy" the whole Soviet space program?Soyuz-->Salut-->Mir.I hope they won`t try to build a Buran next.
Bah! Don't tell me you wouldn't love to see a Buran fly again.