By Vasili Kashin, In the first half of 2012, China has for the first time become the global leader in the number of space launches. China carried out ten space launches, Russia – nine, and the United States in third with eight. Last year China was ahead of the United States for the first time. The Asian state had launched 19 carrier rockets, while the US only 18. At the same time, China was far behind Russia. Last year 32 carrier rockets were launched from Russian space launch sites. Two more rockets were launched from the French tropical Kuru spaceport and one from the sea launch platform belonging to the Russian-American joint venture “Sea Launch”.“Despite the results of the first half of the year, China will still be lagging behind Russia this year,” says Vasily Kashin from the Centre for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies. “Russia is planning to launch 36 carrier rockets and that does not include the ‘Sea Launch’ program or launches from Kuru spaceport. And China is planning to launch 21 carrier rockets. So far, Russia has many more advantages over China in terms of its experience in managing orbital stations and its research of deep space. Russia has been manufacturing carrier rockets of the heavy class for a long time already, and China is only starting to develop them. And Russia’s manned space and carrier rocket program gives all reasons to hope that it will be able to keep the qualitative advantage. Certain Russian technologies, like compact nuclear reactors for spacecraft for example, are still unique and inaccessible to China.” Tags: World, Society, China, space, Commentary, Читать далее, Source: Voice of Russia.
