China Space capsule more Advanced than US and Russia

By JOHN J. LUMPKIN
Associated Press Writer

BEIJING (AP) — It may look like Mission Control in Houston, but this space complex had been hidden from the world until Wednesday – when U.S. officials got their first look at the command center that recently sent China’s first manned flight into orbit and back.

“Congratulations. You’ve had a great success,” Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told Chinese space program officials during his 40-minute tour of the facility.

Like its storied U.S. counterpart at Houston’s Johnson Space Center, Beijing Aerospace Control Center appears to be the technical, and perhaps inspirational, linchpin of its country’s space program.

“Achieve the Chinese people’s dream of flying in the sky,” reads a banner in Chinese characters near one of three massive screens in the control room. Another banner reads, “Realize the complete success of the first manned space mission.”

On Oct. 15, the space center did precisely that. After blasting off from the Gobi Desert, Taikonaut Col. Yang Liwei orbited Earth several times in a modified Russian Soyuz capsule before landing safely inside China’s borders. The mission catapulted China onto the short list of countries – Russia and the United States – with manned spaceflight programs.

Like President Bush, who wants to establish a base on the Moon and a manned mission to Mars, Beijing envisions grander plans – for a space station and a lunar base. China has also announced a second manned mission to take place by 2005.

And like Bush, China regards its space program as a matter of prestige – though there are military purposes, particularly with intelligence-gathering satellites.

When the space control center here is running – it appeared almost deserted Wednesday – an operator at each station monitors one of the subsystems of the Chinese spacecraft. The central main screen has a world map with an overlay of the spacecraft’s orbit. Rows of workstations, each with a Dell computer monitor, sit before the three big wall screens.

Until now, no foreign delegation had been allowed inside the Beijing Aerospace Control Center. A small group of reporters accompanied Myers but were not allowed to take photographs.

Myers and the delegation were also shown a brief video commemorating the flight and asserting that China’s orbital capsule was more advanced than American or Russian models.

Access to such normally closed facilities is regarded as a good sign by American officials, and Myers’ visit to China is part of an effort to rebuild military contacts with the communist country.

The turbulent U.S.-Chinese military relationship had been severely curtailed after U.S. bombs struck the Chinese embassy in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, during the 1999 air war over Kosovo.

They worsened in April 2001 when a Chinese fighter collided with a U.S. reconnaissance plane off the coast of China. They have gradually improved since then, and Myers is the highest-ranking military official to visit China during the Bush administration.