China's space industry witnesses rapid progress since 2011: white paper

China's space industry has witnessed rapid progress since 2011, said a white paper issued Tuesday by the State Council Information Office.

The white paper, titled "China's Space Activities in 2016", said the new developments are "manifested by markedly enhanced capacity in independent innovation and access to outer space," and "constant improvement in space infrastructure."

The progress is also evidenced by "smooth implementation of major projects such as manned spaceflight, lunar exploration, the Beidou Navigation System and high-resolution earth observation system, and substantial achievements in space science, technology and applications."

According to the white paper, "the Long March carrier rocket series completed 86 launch missions, sending over 100 spacecraft into target orbit" from 2011 to November 2016.

In September and October 2016, the Tiangong-2 space laboratory and Shenzhou-11 manned spacecraft were launched and formed an assembly that operates steadily, with the mission of carrying out science and technology experiments in space, the white paper said.

The mission indicates that "China has mastered technologies concerning astronauts' mid-term stay in orbit, and long-term ground mission support," according to the white paper.

Currently, China has mastered major space technologies such as manned space transportation, space extravehicular activity, space docking, operating in assembly and astronauts' mid-term stay in orbit, according to the white paper.

It said that the Beidou Navigation Satellite System (Beidou-2) has been completed, with the networking of 14 Beidou navigation satellites, officially offering positioning, velocity measurement, timing, wide area difference and short-message communication service to customers in the Asia-Pacific region.

The white paper also mentioned China's developments in man-made satellites, deep space exploration, space launch sites, Space Telemetry, Tracking and Command (TT&C), space applications and space science, in addition to its improved monitoring and mitigation of and early warning and protection against space debris.