An inspiring mission

The moment the Shenzhou IX capsule landed safely in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region on Friday morning, China moved closer toward its goal of establishing a permanent space station.

The Shenzhou IX mission has accomplished a series of breakthroughs for the country's space program - Liu Yang was China's first female astronaut, the three astronauts on the mission stayed in space for 13 days, and they completed a successful manual docking with the orbiting Tiangong-1 space module - which points to the country's overall economic strength and the progress of the country's overall science and technology.

China's economic growth over the past three decades has laid a solid foundation for the steady progress of the nation's space program - from unmanned to manned spacecraft, from carrying one astronaut to carrying three astronauts and docking a manned spacecraft with the orbiting space laboratory.

China's space program is part of its peaceful development. The research and development of space technology will serve the needs of other industries and the country's overall economic development and will add to human's knowledge about space.

However, more than taking pride in the success of the Shenzhou IX mission, we should be inspired by it.

We would not have been able to achieve it, and we will not be able to realize the goal of a permanent space station by 2020, without the untiring efforts of the many people in a variety of different fields who contribute their talent and effort to the success of the nation's space missions.

Despite its fast economic growth over the last three decades and the success of this space mission, China needs to make more breakthroughs if it is to successfully transform its development mode and make its economic growth and social progress sustainable.

If all pull together and dedicate themselves to whatever they do, it will enable China to make all the further breakthroughs needed and ensure the country's further advances.

(China Daily 06/30/2012 page7)