China, The Future Space Leader?

Space is a entity that every country dreams to capture. Majority of them do it for military purposes. Launching Military satellites and communications satellite becomes the first step and then comes near space and further space missions

Currently only USA can be considered as a Space power having developed its space technology a lot and only one to send man on moon. Although NASA ambition may be marred by recent cuts to it and no space shuttle to fly currently , but it has included private players to cope with it.{See : SpaceX}

China the new economic power seems to also bear the ambitious of becoming a major space power. China had done an unmanned space docking recently which was a major success to its ambition of making its own space station and becoming a more sophisticated player in space race

1st Chinese Woman in Space

China few days back launched its first women into orbit making it a monumental event for the country. This is  a big achievement for China National Space Administration (CNSA). Liu Wang  along with two other astronaut has been included in the Shenzhou-9 which is a
step two of "mock" space docking missions.  Next step will be conducted in 2013. The event was televised and will surely inculcate pride in the Chinese peoples mind

Chinese Space Plans

As said earlier US space programme has slowed down and China though being a startup may seem to catchup with USA in near future. China is only Asian country to have human space abilities and third globally.
Chinese plans to have the space station ready by 2020 and send humans to both moon and mars.
Sun Laiyan, administrator of the China National Space Administration, said  The first unscrewed Mars exploration program could take place between 2014–2033, followed by a crewed phase in 2040-2060.


USA doesn't support Chinese space program mainly because of the possibility of likely use of space technology for military purpose by allies of china and enemies of USA.

Indian Space Program

Indian space agency  ISRO is the 6th largest in the world. ISRO known for its highly successful PSLV (having only one failure in 19 flights) planned first manned space mission in 2016. This will make it the 4th nation to have human space capabilities.

[Top Image Details on Wikipedia]