New Chinese Rocket Raises Concerns of Arms Race in Space

China detailed plans today to build a new rocket with enough power to put a space station into orbit, raising fresh questions about whether it aims to compete or collaborate with the US in space.

The Long March 5 rocket will have almost three times as much thrust as the existing launch vehicle, putting it on a par with developed nations in its ability to carry heavy satellites, state media reported.

The announcement of the new generation of rockets came as the country's Chang'e 1 lunar probe, which was launched last week, pushed further into space than any previous Chinese spacecraft.

Following two successful manned space flights in the past four years, the confidence and ambition of Chinese scientists has never been higher. They plan to put a robot on the moon in 2012 and an astronaut by about 2020, and construction of the Long March 5 will be an important step towards those goals.

According to the China Daily, the new rocket will have the capacity to carry payloads of up to 25 tonnes into near-Earth orbits, up from the current limit of 9 tonnes.

"They are designed to launch space stations or heavyweight satellites, which the current Long March 3-A rockets cannot handle," the newspaper said.

Because of the increased size and weight of the rocket, which will have a diameter of five meters instead of the current 3.35 meters, it will require a new construction plant and launch site.

The rockets will be made in the port of Tianjin on the north-east coast and a new site will be constructed on the island of Hainan in the south by 2012. Sea transport between the two will be easier than using the smaller roads and tunnels between existing factories and launch sites.

Officials said the new generation of rockets, which will be operational by 2013, would help China compete in the lucrative satellite launch market for decades.

"They are expected to meet the demands of space technology development and peaceful use of space for the next 30 to 50 years," Wu Yansheng, the president of the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology, was quoted as saying by the newspaper.

No cost was given for the new rocket program, but much of the research is already complete. Earlier this year, scientists successfully tested the engines, which burn liquid hydrogen and kerosene.

The program is run by the defense ministry, adding to concerns about a possible military application of the Long March 5 rockets and the more sophisticated satellites they will be able to launch.

Fears about a space arms race with the US were heightened earlier this year when China blew up one of its own weather orbiters in an anti-satellite missile test.

China's technological progress has been impressive. Since 1970, it has launched 103 Long March rockets with only seven failures. In the past 10 years, the government says the rocket has a 100% record.

Last week, a Long March rocket carried the lunar orbiter, Chang'e 1, into space.

Today, Chang'e 1 was 75,000 miles from earth - a distance record for China's space industry. It will later orbit the moon, create three-dimensional maps of the surface and analyze lunar dust using stereo cameras and X-ray spectro- meters. The first images will be transmitted to Earth in the second half of November.