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China's space program hit a huge milestone last week with the launch of its Long March-5 rocket from the new Wenchang Space Launch Center, the nation's fourth launch site. This new heavy-lift booster gives China a rocket that is equaled in power only by the US Delta IV Heavy launch vehicle: about 25 metric tons to low-Earth orbit (LEO).
China deserves credit for creating a space development plan in 1992, called Project 921, and then following through with it. Initially the Chinese space program was derided as highly derivative of Russia's launch program, but, with the new family of Long March rockets, which use modern design and propellants such as refined RP-1 kerosene and liquid hydrogen, China must now be regarded as a world-class space power.
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