To Beijing, its expanding space mission also carries an increasingly powerful symbolic message. “This is more than just a landing,” said Alan Duffy, a lead scientist with the Royal Institution of Australia focusing on space exploration. Last year, China scheduled over 40 space mission launches, more than twice the number of 2017. Moon missions appear to be especially valuable to Beijing, and the country has made progress on that front far quicker than in other, less prestigious realms. The destruction created so many particles that its remnants still account for about 25 percent of today’s space debris, posing growing risks to satellites and space missions of all nations.

Source: National Post January 03, 2019 04:14 UTC