Founded in 1993, the CNSA has pioneered a number of achievements in space for China despite its relatively short history, including becoming the first space agency to land on thefar side of the Moon withChang'e 4, bringing material back from the Moon withChang'e 5 and6, and being the second agency who successfully landed a rover on Mars withTianwen-1.Tianwen-2 is en route to explore theco-orbital near-Earth asteroid469219 Kamoʻoalewa and theactive asteroid311P/PanSTARRS and collecting samples of the regolith of Kamo'oalewa.[3]
CNSA is an agency created in 1993 when theMinistry of Aerospace Industry was split into CNSA and theChina Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC). The former was to be responsible for policy, while the latter was to be responsible for execution. This arrangement proved somewhat unsatisfactory, as these two agencies were, in effect, one large agency, sharing both personnel and management.[6]
As part of a massive restructuring in 1998, CASC was split into a number of smallerstate-owned companies. The intention appeared to have been to create a system similar to that characteristic ofWesterndefense procurement in which entities which are government agencies, setting operational policy, would then contract out their operational requirements to entities which were government-owned, but not government-managed.[6]
Since the passage of theWolf Amendment in 2011,NASA has been forced by Congress to implement a long-standing exclusion policy with CNSA ever since, though this has been periodically overcome.
In 2021, China began building theTiangong space station, which consists of three modules designated for crew, cargo, and research. The construction was completed in late 2022, and there are plans to add an additional three modules.
In 2024,China announced that it will undertake 100space missions, a significant increase from the 70 missions conducted in 2023. This is mostly satellites, testing, crew replacement, cargo, and more.
CNSA was established as a government institution to develop and fulfill China's due international obligations, with the approval by the8th National People's Congress of China (NPC). The 9th NPC assigned CNSA as an internal structure of theCommission of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense (COSTIND).CNSA assumes the following main responsibilities: signing governmental agreements in the space area on behalf of organizations, inter-governmental scientific and technical exchanges; and also being in charge of the enforcement of national space policies and managing the national space science, technology and industry.
Department of Science, Technology and Quality Control
Department of Foreign Affairs
CNSA's logo is a similar design to that ofChina Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation.[10] The arrow in the middle is similar to the Chinese character 人 which means 'human' or 'people', to state that humans are the center of all space exploration. The three concentric ellipses stand for three types ofescape velocity (minimum speed needed to reach sustainable orbits, to escape the Earth system, and to escape the Solar System) which are milestones of space exploration. The second ring is drawn with a bold line, to state that China has passed the first stage of exploration (Earth system) and is undergoing the second stage exploration (within the Solar System). The 人 character stands above the three rings to emphasize humanity's capability to escape and explore.Olive branches were added to state that China's space exploration is peaceful in nature.[citation needed]
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