The cost of rare earth metals used in electronics has soared to record levels in the past two weeks as China clamps down on illegal mining and limits supplies.
China’s second lunar probe, Chang’e 2, has been boosted out of lunar orbit and beyond.
Oil money in Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan and Venezuela is fueling their modest space efforts.
Our tax dollars at work: Under both the Bush and Obama administrations, the EPA has given $1.29 million in grants to various Chinese government agencies.
China’s largest inland lake has disappeared in the worst drought in more than half a century.
Chinese journalists were barred from all official press areas during the Endeavour launch.
A NASA spokesperson says the agency was simply following instructions in last month’s 2011 spending bill that averted a government-wide shutdown. The legislation prohibits NASA from using any resources to host visits by a Chinese official to any NASA facility as well as for collaborations with any Chinese government entity. The Chinese journalists work for Xinhua, the official Chinese news agency, and thus are considered government employees.
The story behind China’s planned space station begins to emerge.
China first said it would build a space station in 1992. But the need for a manned outpost “has been continually contested by Chinese space professionals who, like their counterparts in the United States, question the scientific utility and expense of human space flight”, says Gregory Kulacki, China project manager at the Union of Concerned Scientists, headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts. “That battle is effectively over now, however, and the funds for the space station seem to have been allocated, which is why more concrete details are finally beginning to emerge.”
Though I am always skeptical of comments from the Union of Concerned Scientists, in this case Kulacki makes sense. He also illustrates a further example of what I wrote in 2005, “After more than 40 years of debate, the argument is over and the supporters of manned spaceflight have won.”
More details, including images, of China’s proposed space station.
China is asking the public to name its space station.
Competition! China finds SpaceX’s launch prices low — and a challenge to meet.
Declining to speak for attribution, the Chinese officials say they find the published prices on the SpaceX website very low for the services offered, and concede they could not match them with the Long March series of launch vehicles even if it were possible for them to launch satellites with U.S. components in them.
China’s second lunar orbiter, Chang’e 2: still in operation after 180 days.
Unfortunately, little of its scientific results have been released.
The new colonial movement: China’s first probe to Mars is now set for a November launch.
China on the march! The next flight of their Shenzhou manned spacecraft could be a three week unmanned mission designed to test rendezvous and docking with their soon-to-launch Tiangong 1 space laboratory.
The military space war between China and the U.S.
Some educated speculations about the next manned mission in the Chinese space program.
Chinese female astronaut identified.
Videos from the Chinese lunar probe, Chang’e 2.
Take a look at these spectacular images China released from its Chang’e 2 lunar probe that they say show potential landing sites for later Chinese probes.
China today released the first photos taken by Chang’e 2, its second lunar orbiter launched on October 1. More here, including one image.
China today announced plans to complete its first space station by 2020.
China is expanding its embargo on exporting rare earth minerals, blocking shipments to Japan, Europe and the United States. Key quote:
China mines 95 percent of the world’s rare earth elements, which have broad commercial and military applications, and are vital to the manufacture of products as diverse as cellphones, large wind turbines and guided missiles. Any curtailment of Chinese supplies of rare earths is likely to be greeted with alarm in Western capitals, particularly because Western companies are believed to keep much smaller stockpiles of rare earths than Japanese companies.
The possibilities for China’s Chang’e 2 lunar probe include travel far beyond the Moon.
The effort of NASA administrator Charles Bolden to increase cooperation with China is apparently in direct conflict with the wishes of Congress.
China’s new lunar orbiter, Chang’e 2, has arrived in lunar orbit.
The second Chinese probe to the Moon did more than take off on Friday. It also rained pieces of metal down on a Chinese villages in Suichuan County, Jiangxi, China.
China has launched its second unmanned lunar probe, designed to photograph the Moon from an orbit altitude of 9 miles.
