Space Inspires Passion And Practicality in China

"If you were building a new facility to launch rockets today, you would do it the Chinese way," Feeney said. He marveled at the launchpad, which can accommodate two rockets at the same time and can ready them for launch within 60 minutes of being delivered. This fast-launching ability could be crucial in a situation in which space rescue is required, he said.

For the Chinese, the space program is becoming another point of pride. The planned spacewalk, like the two other manned space flights China has conducted in the past five years, will likely be a nationally televised event. Contests are underway for schoolchildren to create artwork to commemorate the feat. A black-market cellphone handset maker is doing a brisk business selling a rocket-shaped mobile device, painted red with "Shenzhou VII" stamped on the side.

As China gains confidence, officials are becoming a bit more willing to showcase their space acumen. The government announced this summer that it will build a first-ever visitors' center alongside a launch site in Hainan province, an island in southern China. Chen Yao, vice tourism bureau chief of the province, said he expects the center to be completed in 2012.

China is unabashed when it thinks about using the space environment for practical purposes. For example, China sent thousands of agricultural seeds into space to see how radiation, zero gravity and other pressures would affect them. Universities and state-owned companies then cultivated the seeds and have produced giant pumpkins, tomatoes, cucumbers and the like. The state-run New China News Agency reported that the vitamin content of vegetables grown from space-bred seeds was 281.5 percent higher than that of ordinary vegetables. Others have declined to follow China's lead, saying the costs are too high and they are skeptical of the benefits.

Ouyang does not rule out mining resources on the moon one day or finding ways to get fuel sources such as helium-3 from the moon. "Apart from coal, in less than 100 years all our resources could be finished. As scientists, we have to think of alternatives. It's the right thing to do," Ouyang said.

But for now, Ouyang and China's other scientists and engineers are focused on the specific technical challenges of operating in space and conducting basic exploration. Although U.S. space officials say China will be capable in coming years of landing men on the moon, Ouyang said the government has not decided whether to bankroll such an effort.

China has already built a solid, homegrown business in manufacturing and launching communication and surveillance satellites, and it is selling those services to countries including Brazil, Venezuela and Nigeria. "It's no accident that these are resource-rich countries," Logsdon said. "China is using its space capabilities as part of its broader diplomatic efforts."

China's civilian space budget is stable but not very large; some experts estimate it at about one-tenth NASA's 2008 budget of $17.3 billion. China's budget is expected to grow steadily in coming years, however, as China's economy continues to expand.

China is developing a comprehensive, long-term space strategy, through 2050, that will help promote and develop China's economy, technology and other interests, according to research published in July by Yi Zhou. Yi says now is the time for the United States and China to start trying to cooperate in their civilian space programs; until now, U.S. laws have prohibited technology transfers to China, and the two nations' space agencies have no cooperation agreements. The alienation is stark, given that NASA has signed about 4,000 agreements with more than 100 nations and that the China National Space Administration has built relationships with several nations as well as the European Space Agency.

In the paper, Yi recognizes the barriers to any such cooperation: "China is concerned with the implications of U.S. military space capabilities for its security interests, and the USA reciprocally is concerned with the potential build-up of Chinese capabilities to counter U.S. military space capabilities."

Hitchens said she hopes the two countries can find a way to cooperate "as a means of creating a more transparent relationship, and dampening fears on both sides about military intentions and capabilities in space."

"No one, least of all the United States, wins if a military space race breaks out," Hitchens said in an e-mail.