Stories From The New Silk Road: Space
The Space Silk Road is helping China break new ground in space exploration
China's Belt and Road Initiative stretches physically with infrastructure projects across the globe, but there is one initiative that is the most ambitious yet; The Space Silk Road is beginning to carve out a unique position for China. The space race is heating up with new entrants like India and private companies like SpaceX, but it’s the Chinese who are set to dominate by 2045. And central to the Space Silk Road? A controversial station in Patagonia, Argentina. The Espacio Lejano Ground Station has a powerful 16-story antenna, with an 8-foot barbed wire fence that surrounds the entire compound. With other facilities in countries from Bolivia to Peru, do China's space ambitions cross the known world and aim for intergalactic exploration, rare mineral discovery and potential domination in space?
Landing on the far side of the moon in 2019 and again in 2024 have marked a key milestone in China’s push to become a dominant space power. And with plans to land astronauts on the moon by 2030 and build a research base on its south pole, China’s ambitions in our solar system have been gaining momentum.
Katy Watson asks astronomers, space engineers and Argentinian residents, how is President Xi's Space Silk Road impacting their universe?
Producer: Pete Shevlin
Executive Producer: Monica Whitlock
A C60 Media production for the Â鶹ÊÓƵAV World Service.
On radio
More episodes
Previous
Broadcasts
- Thursday 01:32GMTÂ鶹ÊÓƵAV World Service
- Thursday 08:32GMTÂ鶹ÊÓƵAV World Service
- Thursday 19:06GMTÂ鶹ÊÓƵAV World Service except East and Southern Africa & West and Central Africa
- Saturday 16:32GMTÂ鶹ÊÓƵAV World Service News Internet
- Saturday 21:06GMTÂ鶹ÊÓƵAV World Service except East and Southern Africa & West and Central Africa
- Sunday 04:32GMTÂ鶹ÊÓƵAV World Service except East and Southern Africa
- Sunday 13:06GMTÂ鶹ÊÓƵAV World Service News Internet
- Sunday 21:32GMTÂ鶹ÊÓƵAV World Service East and Southern Africa