Following the success of Shenzhou-5',‘Shenzhou-6'mission achieved a complete success. At 4:33 am on 17, October, after 115 hours and 32 minutes of space flight, ‘Shezhou-6' returned after completing substantial manned scientific experiments. Astronaut Fei Junlong and Nie Haisheng returned safely. From “one man one day" to “two man five days", the success of Shenzhou-6 is a great progress in our exploration of space.

With the success of Shenzhou-6, Mr. Sun Laiyan, Vice Minister of COSTIND and Administrator of CNSA was interviewed by journalist from CCTV and this website, and talked about the future of Chinese space program and manned missions.

Question: From National and Strategic point of view, what does ‘shenzhou-6'mean to our next step in space.

Mr.Sun: The success of the first phase manned space flight program made China the number 3 country in the world that have independent manned space flight capacity. This has profound and historical significance for China in lifting national pride and reflecting national strength.

Through China's manned space program implementation, we have established an independent, comprehensive space flight engineering system. Through the implementation of this program, the national science, technology and industry has been upgraded, and innovation ability has been improved, which plays a very important role in national science and technology level. This project made China the third country that launch its own astronauts into space with its own launcher and capsule. The implementation of this program, a young generation working team has been trained which is greatly conducive to the sustainable space development in China.

Question: Whats Chinas next step for space, especially future development target.

Mr.Sun: China's space activities are derived from the correct Party  and government leadership and the support of its people. The spirit from the 5th plenary session of the 16th party congress provided essence and guidance to the development of space. The implementation of “people-Oriented" scientific development concept and the continued upgrading of our creativity requires us to develop our space program for national economy, social progress, scientific innovation, national security and peaceful development of the whole world. We are currently drafting the “11th five year plan", the future general scenario would be: first, we shall continue to carry out human space flight program. Second, initiating lunar orbiting program and launch lunar satellite by 2007. Third, upgrading Chinas space access ability by developing a new generation non-toxic, non-pollution launch vehicle, which will enable us to launch 25T to LEO and 14T to GTO. Forth, further strengthen space application and space science and satellite
applications, further industrialize space in China. Fifth, enhance international cooperation. China is willing to have bigger, wider and higher level cooperation in on the basis of mutual respect, mutual benefit and common progress so as to reflect space development and its peaceful use for the benefit of humanity.

Question: What are some of the specific cooperation projects we have with other space agencies.

Mr.Sun: we have established cooperative relationship with many countries, we jointly development China Brazil Earth Observation Satellite (CBERS) with Brazil. We jointly implemented Double Star program with European Space Agency. We are currently initiating regional space cooperation mechanism called APSCO.

Question: Could we say China is a Space Power.

Mr.Sun: China is the third country in the world that has manned space flight technology, but China will develop its space in accordance with its own national demand. We are still a developing country and space will not be a race. It will serve national development strategy and become an integral part of national development strategy. I am confident that the principle of education and science and technology innovation, innovation and industrialization are the right path to national prosperity, social harmony. All these will maintain our national prosperity and make us a strong nation in the world.

Question: How much distance to we have with the United States and Russia in Space.

Mr.Sun: Chinas space activity started in 1956, Russia and US started off much earlier. We have distance in scale and in industrial level. This is our national situation, because we are a development country. In general, we will have to give certain priorities and position our space program as part of national overall development.

Question: Compare with the United States, what are some of our characteristics in space development.

Mr.Sun:Chinas space programs has two prominent characters:  1, we work under the spirit of two missile and one satellite, which is “Patriotism, selflessness, independent, coordinated, progress", and under the spirit of manned space fight, which is “extremely hardworking, extremely aggressive, extremely contributive". These spirits are unique and has been passed on generations after generations. 2, hard working and innovative working is also a character of Chinas space development.

Question: What did independent innovation do to Chinas space technology development.

Mr.Sun: Space is a high technology industry. High technology could not be bought. Only when we have the core technology, could we not relay on others for such development and we could decide on our own path.

Question: How do you evaluated Chinas position in global space community.

Mr.Sun: We will not under evaluate our self, but also would not over estimate either. We are a developing country with only 1000 US Dollars per capital head and we are working under a constrained space budget. To ensure the sustainable space development, we must be able to find our shortcomings, and continue our development on national situation.

Question: The completion of this manned space flight mission marks the end of the first phase and beginning of the second phase of human space flight program. What did the first 6 launches do to our national space technology.

Mr.Sun, First, ‘Shenzhou-6'and its success reflected our requirements of quality first, safety first. It achieve our goal of successful launching, nominal operation, safe return and astronauts healthy recovery. This is very important for our past and the future and lays a solid foundation for our future EVA and docking. Second, further give us confidence in space development with our national characteristics. Third, ‘shenzhou-6'cultivated a young generation and under the guidance of the old generation, a prospers and striving general will achieve new glary.

Question: What are some of the most prominent issues that face our future deep space program.

Mr.Sun: Many key technology still need us to over come, especially when we give our priority to the programs, we would never achieve success in all dimension. Our general director and continuation of certain programs has to follow our national statues. These programs including human space flight, lunar mission, new generation larger launch vehicle, space science and application satellite, and satellite applications. In this process, series of technological break through are expected to lift our capacity foundations.