Leonard David's INSIDE OUTER SPACE

The 27th Planetary Congress of the Association of Space Explorers in Beijing, China has brought together space travelers from around the globe.
Credit: CMSE

Space travelers from around the globe are taking part in the 27th Planetary Congress of the Association of Space Explorers in Beijing, China.

The theme of the Congress is “Cooperation: To Realize Humanity’s Space Dream Together.” The program has been underway from September 10-15.

Yang Liwei, deputy director of China Manned Space Agency – and that country’s first astronaut – opened the airlock for other nations to take part in its space station efforts.

Yang Liwei, deputy director of China Manned Space Agency – and that country’s first astronaut.
Credit: CMSE

“We reserved a number of platforms that can be used for international cooperative projects in our future space station when we designed it,” said Yang. “In addition to collaboration in applied experiments, we also designed adapters that can dock with other nations’ spacecraft,” he said.

China intends to loft the core module of its space station in 2018 to test related technologies and engineering issues. According to Yang, the full space station will become fully operational around 2022.

Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield discusses essentials of space engineering to Chinese students.
Credit: CMSE

This is the first time that China has hosted the ASE’s planetary congress. The ASE is an international nonprofit professional and educational organization of nearly 400 astronauts from 35 nations.

Yang also announced that the infrastructure construction on China’s new Wenchang Satellite Launch Center in the southern island province of Hainan has been completed – work that began in 2009.

The Long March-5 rocket system, China’s most powerful rocket that is under development, is to be flown from Wenchang.

Female space travelers all (left to right): Former NASA astronauts, Mary Ellen Weber and Susan Helms, private space explorer and entrepreneur, Anousheh Ansari, and China’s Wang Yaping. They were awarded the Shenzhen exchange ambassadors title.
Credit: CMSE/ Maosi Qian

Former NASA astronaut, Bruce McCandless, shares his spaceflight experiences. He made the first ever untethered free flight using the Manned Maneuvering Unit in 1984.
Credit: CMSE

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