National space agency of the People's Republic of China
The
China National Space Administration
(
CNSA
) is a government agency of the
People's Republic of China
headquartered in
Haidian, Beijing
, responsible for civil space administration and international space cooperation. These responsibilities include organizing or leading foreign exchanges and cooperation in the aerospace field.
[2]
The CNSA is an administrative agency under the
Ministry of Industry and Information Technology
.
[3]
[
need quotation to verify
]
Founded in 1993, CNSA has pioneered a number of achievements in space for China despite its relatively short history, including becoming the first space agency to land on the
far side of the Moon
with
Chang'e 4
, bringing material back from the Moon with
Chang'e 5
and
6
, and being the second agency who successfully landed a rover on Mars with
Tianwen-1
.
As the governing body of civil space activities, China National Space Administration does not execute any space program. The
China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation
executes China's state space programs instead.
[4]
[
need quotation to verify
]
The
China Manned Space Program
is operated by
China Manned Space Agency
, instead of the CNSA.
[5]
[
need quotation to verify
]
History
[
edit
]
CNSA is an agency created in 1993 when the
Ministry of Aerospace Industry
was split into CNSA and the
China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation
(CASC). The former was to be responsible for policy, while the latter was to be responsible for execution. This arrangement proved somewhat unsatisfactory, as these two agencies were, in effect, one large agency, sharing both personnel and management.
[6]
As part of a massive restructuring in 1998, CASC was split into a number of smaller
state-owned companies
. The intention appeared to have been to create a system similar to that characteristic of
Western
defense
procurement in which entities which are government agencies, setting operational policy, would then contract out their operational requirements to entities which were government-owned, but not government-managed.
[6]
Since the passage of the
Wolf Amendment
in 2011,
NASA
has been forced by Congress to implement a long-standing exclusion policy with CNSA ever since, though this has been periodically overcome.
In 2021, China began building the
Tiangong space station
, which consists of three modules designated for crew, cargo, and research. The construction was completed in late 2022, and there are plans to add an additional three modules.
In 2024,
China
announced that it will undertake 100
space missions
, a significant increase from the 70 missions conducted in 2023 this is mostly satellites, testing, crew replacement, cargo, and more.
Function
[
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]
CNSA was established as a government institution to develop and fulfill China's due international obligations, with the approval by the
8th National People's Congress
of China (NPC). The 9th NPC assigned CNSA as an internal structure of the
Commission of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense
(COSTIND).
CNSA assumes the following main responsibilities: signing governmental agreements in the space area on behalf of organizations, inter-governmental scientific and technical exchanges; and also being in charge of the enforcement of national space policies and managing the national space science, technology and industry.
China has signed governmental space cooperation agreements with
Argentina
,
Brazil
,
Chile
, France, Germany, India, Italy,
Pakistan
, Russia,
Ukraine
, the United Kingdom, the United States, and some other countries. Significant achievements have been scored in the bilateral and multilateral and technology exchanges and cooperation.
[6]
Administrators
[
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]
The most recent administrator is
Zhang Kejian
.
Wu Yanhua
is vice-administrator and
Tian Yulong
is secretary general.
[7]
Departments
[
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]
There are four departments under the CNSA:
- Department of General Planning
- Department of System Engineering
- Department of Science, Technology and Quality Control
- Department of Foreign Affairs
CNSA's logo is a similar design to that of
China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation
.
[10]
The arrow in the middle is similar to the Chinese character 人 which means 'human' or 'people', to state that humans are the center of all space exploration. The three concentric ellipses stand for three types of
escape velocity
(minimum speed needed to reach sustainable orbits, to escape the Earth system, and to escape the Solar System) which are milestones of space exploration. The second ring is drawn with a bold line, to state that China has passed the first stage of exploration (Earth system) and is undergoing the second stage exploration (within the Solar System). The 人 character stands above the three rings to emphasize humanity's capability to escape and explore.
Olive branches
were added to state that China's space exploration is peaceful in nature.
[
citation needed
]
Launch facilities
[
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]
Location of China's spaceports
See also
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]
Notes
[
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]
- ^
Includes both civilian and military space spending.
References
[
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External links
[
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]
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Projects and missions
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Science
| Planetary science
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Astronomy and
cosmology
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Earth observation
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Human
spaceflight
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Navigation
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Telecommunications
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Technology
demonstrators
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Related
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- Future missions marked in
italics
. Failed missions marked with † sign
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Earth observation
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Communication and engineering
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Data relay satellite system
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Satellite navigation system
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Astronomical observation
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Lunar exploration
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Planetary exploration
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Microsatellites
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Future spacecraft in
italics
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Centers
| Space cities
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Monitoring and
control centers
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Launch sites
| Suborbital launch sites
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Orbital launch sites
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Crewed spacecraft
landing site
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Associated
organizations
| Universities and institutes
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Ministries and agencies
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Commercial companies
| Launch providers
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Spacecraft manufacturers
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Component suppliers
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Africa
| Pan-African
and Pan-Arab
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National
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Americas
| North America
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Latin America
and the Caribbean
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Asia
| Pan-Asian
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Central Asia
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East Asia
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South Asia
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Southeast Asia
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Southwest Asia
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Europe
| Pan-European
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EU
and
EEA
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Other
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Oceania
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World
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Former
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Organizations
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Colleges
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State-owned enterprises
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