China to Hold Talks on Building Asteroid Defence System

[Boats]

China to Hold Talks on Building Asteroid Defence System
By: Reuters - & US News - 04-24-21
Re: https://www.usnews.com/news/world/ar...defence-system

BEIJING (Reuters) -China will hold discussion on building a defence system against near-earth asteroids, a senior space agency official said on Saturday, as the country steps up efforts towards realizing its longer term space ambitions.

Zhang Kejian, head of the China National Space Administration, didn't provide any further details in his opening remarks at a ceremony for China's space day in the eastern city of Nanjing.

China has made space exploration a top priority in recent years, aiming to establish a programme operating thousands of space flights a year and carrying tens of thousands of tonnes of cargo and passengers by 2045.

It signed a memorandum of understanding last month with Russia to set up an international lunar research station.

The European space agency last year signed a deal worth 129 million euros ($156.08 million) to make a spacecraft for a joint project with NASA looking at how to deflect an asteroid heading for earth.

($1 = 0.8265 euros)

(Reporting by Roxanne Liu and Shivani Singh; Editing by Mike Harrison)

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Personal note: Whose to say China's near-earth satellite system (lets say in the near future) can't be rotated 180 Deg. and point at some earth bound targets? Something to consider!
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Boats