On December 12, 2019, Yuan Jie, General Manager and Deputy Party Secretary of China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC), delivered an open lecture at Beihang University to more than 500 students. Titled Prospects for Building China into a Strong Aerospace Nation, the lecture outlined the roadmap for China’s aerospace development and key major projects to be implemented by CASC over the next 25 years.

Through more than 60 years of development, China’s aerospace industry has secured a string of remarkable achievements. Yuan Jie elaborated on seven key fields, including missile weapon systems, launch vehicles, and space infrastructure.

• Missile weaponry: China has developed dozens of types of surface-to-surface, surface-to-air, coastal defense and air-to-air missiles, forming a complete and well-supported missile equipment system.

• Launch vehicles: China has successfully developed 17 models of the Long March series launch vehicles, realizing serialized and standardized development. The Long March rockets have completed 320 launches with a success rate of over 96 percent, capable of sending various types of spacecraft into high, medium and low orbits.

• Space infrastructure: China has established a satellite system centered on communication, navigation and remote sensing. By the end of November, nearly 300 satellites were in orbit, among which 227 were developed by CASC, ranking China second in the world.

• Manned spaceflight: China has developed the Shenzhou crewed spacecraft, Tianzhou cargo spacecraft and Tiangong space laboratory series, sending 11 astronauts into space on 14 separate missions.

• Deep space exploration: The Chang’e lunar probe series has been independently developed, completing five successful exploration missions and achieving the world’s first soft landing and roving exploration on the far side of the Moon.

• Space science: A comprehensive space science research system has taken shape, supported by platforms such as space science satellites, recoverable satellites, lunar probes, Shenzhou spacecraft and the Tiangong space laboratories, enabling a wide range of space scientific experiments and research.

• Satellite applications: Aerospace technologies have permeated national security, economic and social development, and daily life. They play an irreplaceable role in resource exploitation, environmental protection, disaster prevention and mitigation, counter-terrorism emergency response, transportation and logistics.

Looking ahead, Yuan Jie stated that as the core force and mainstay of China’s aerospace cause, CASC shall give full play to the leading and driving role of aerospace technologies, take proactive actions, and fully underpin the great goal of national rejuvenation and the building of a modern socialist country.

By 2020, all goals set in the 13th Five-Year Plan were fully accomplished, laying a solid foundation for building a strong aerospace nation. Key major projects included a permanently crewed low-Earth orbit space station, lunar sample return missions, the global BeiDou Navigation Satellite System, the high-resolution Earth observation system, a low-orbit mobile internet constellation, and China’s first Mars landing exploration.

By 2030, CASC will grow into a world-class aerospace enterprise group, support national defense and military modernization, and elevate China into the ranks of the world’s leading aerospace powers. Planned major initiatives cover the Long March 9 heavy-lift launch vehicle, in-orbit servicing and maintenance systems for space vehicles, integrated space-terrestrial information networks, next-generation space infrastructure, Mars and asteroid sample return, and the Cosmic Sound Seekers Program for exploring habitable exoplanets near the Solar System.

By 2045, built on a fully established high-quality world-class aerospace enterprise group, CASC will effectively support the development of a world-class military and help China fully establish itself as a comprehensive global aerospace power. Major projects will include a fully functional and long-term operational lunar research station, exploration of the Solar System’s boundary, combined-power reusable launch vehicles, global monitoring and management of the space security environment, and the development of manned Mars landing capabilities.

Excerpted from the official WeChat account of China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation