The Shenzhou 7 spacecraft, launched aboard a 19-story Long March 2F, marked China’s third manned spaceflight and comes a mere five years after its initial 2003 lift-off. This riskiest of spacewalk was monitored and supported by five satellite tracking ships: four ships in the Pacific Ocean and one in the Atlantic and by space telemetry network supported by some 20 terrestrial surveying stations.

The Shenzhou has no space station to dock with, but China intends to remedy that; it intends to build its own space station in the very near future; Shenzhou missions are expected to start work on the project, beginning with the very next launch: Shenzhou 8 is expected to carry a small “space laboratory” with it as payload. Shenzhou 9 will go to the space as an unmanned mission, and will dock with this laboratory, carrying additional material; and subsequently, Shenzhou 10 is planned to be launched with three astronauts on board who will complete a small space station complex. All this is scheduled to happen within the next 12 to 18 months.

While these demonstrate China’s determination to extend its space programme, which brings it political and scientific benefits, what is very important to remember is that China’s space programme has also a very major military dimension. The world was shocked when, in January 2007, the space programme in combination with the military tested an anti-satellite weapon. The international community correctly interpreted this as a clear indication that it would not hesitate to weaponise outer space. Many in the world, including India, expressed regret through official channels about the test, but it appears that China has not been particularly bothered by the diplomatic firestorm. Today, as domestic problems multiply — the uprisings in the Uyghur and Tibet, problems with melamine in milk — successes like this are useful to demonstrate, both domestically and internationally, that China is among the first rank of powers in the use and development of advanced technology.

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