China is now the third spacefaring country in the world after Russia and the United States.  China became the third country to send an astronaut into space, Yang Liwei, in 2003.    Brian Harvey will outline the history and development of the Chinese space programme from its mediaeval military rockets to its formal foundation in 1956 and first satellite launch in 1970.  China has since built a fleet of Long March rockets and launched communications, navigation, applications and scientific satellites and their progress will be described.  A moon probe is scheduled for launch next year, 2006 and a manned space station by 2008.  He will outline the future prospects for China's space programme, including its new launchers, manned  programme and flights to the moon and Mars.

Brian Harvey is a writer on spaceflight and has written books on the Russian, Chinese, European, Japanese and Indian space programmes.  His book on Yang Liwei's historic mission has just been published by Praxis/Springer.
      

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