China's space industry has witnessed rapid progress since 2011, said a white paper issued Tuesday by the State Council Information Office.

The white paper, titled "China's Space Activities in 2016", said the new developments are "manifested by markedly enhanced capacity in independent innovation and access to outer space," and "constant improvement in space infrastructure."

The progress is also evidenced by "smooth implementation of major projects such as manned spaceflight, lunar exploration, the Beidou Navigation System and high-resolution earth observation system, and substantial achievements in space science, technology and applications."

According to the white paper, "the Long March carrier rocket series completed 86 launch missions, sending over 100 spacecraft into target orbit" from 2011 to November 2016.

In September and October 2016, the Tiangong-2 space laboratory and Shenzhou-11 manned spacecraft were launched and formed an assembly that operates steadily, with the mission of carrying out science and technology experiments in space, the white paper said.

The mission indicates that "China has mastered technologies concerning astronauts' mid-term stay in orbit, and long-term ground mission support," according to the white paper.

Currently, China has mastered major space technologies such as manned space transportation, space extravehicular activity, space docking, operating in assembly and astronauts' mid-term stay in orbit, according to the white paper.

It said that the Beidou Navigation Satellite System (Beidou-2) has been completed, with the networking of 14 Beidou navigation satellites, officially offering positioning, velocity measurement, timing, wide area difference and short-message communication service to customers in the Asia-Pacific region.

The white paper also mentioned China's developments in man-made satellites, deep space exploration, space launch sites, Space Telemetry, Tracking and Command (TT and C), space applications and space science, in addition to its improved monitoring and mitigation of and early warning and protection against space debris.

China expects major breakthroughs in space science: white paper
China plans to achieve major discoveries and breakthroughs in the frontier areas of space science, according to a white paper released on Tuesday.

Targeting major frontier areas of space science and technology, China will implement a series of new space science satellite programs in the next five years to further mankind's knowledge of the universe, said the white paper.

Scientists will seek evidence of the existence of dark matter by using dark matter particle exploration satellites to detect high-energy electrons and high-energy gamma rays in the universe.

China also plans to launch a hard X-ray modulation telescope to study the matter dynamics and high-energy radiation processes in the strong gravitational field of compact celestial bodies and black holes.

Scientists will research large-scale structure and interaction models of solar wind and the magnetosphere, and the response to magnetospheric substorm change process.

Shijian-10 recoverable satellite, Chang'e lunar probes, Shenzhou spacecraft, Tiangong-2 space laboratory and Tianzhou-1 cargo spacecraft are to be used to implement scientific experiments and research in biology, life sciences, medicine and materials in the space environment.

The country will also carry out quantum experiments in space.

According to the white paper, China will carry out basic research into sun-earth space environment, space climate, and solar activity and its impact on space climate, and implement space-related interdisciplinary research as well.

The white paper said China is to perform experiments on new space technologies to provide solid technological support for its space industry.

Source: Xinhua News Agency