China's success of manned spaceflight encourages developing world: Brazilian official
( 2003-10-18 10:44) (Xinhua)
China's success in sending and returning to earth its first spaceman broke
the monopoly of Russia and the United States in manned spaceflight, which has
greatly encouraged other developing countries, a senior Brazilian official said
Friday in Beijing.
By carrying out its own manned space program, China showed that a developing
country can also make achievements in those frontier technological fields, said
Roberto Amaral, Brazilian minister of science and technology, who is attending
the ongoing 14th Academician Conference of the Third World Academy of Sciences
(TWAS).
Amaral highly valued the space technology cooperation between Brazil and
China in recent years. The first Earth Resources Satellite jointly developed by
the two countries was carried by a Chinese rocket, Long March 4-B, into orbit in
October 1999. The satellite was designed to gather terrestrial information on
the environment, agriculture and urban planning.
He also revealed that the second Earth Resources Satellite is scheduled to be
launched into orbit in the near future, which shows more fruits in the bilateral
cooperation in science and technology.
"We are particularly interested in closer cooperation with China in
developing space technology," he said. "Chinese scientists have much experience
in some areas, which would definitely help us Brazilians."
Multilateral cooperation in space technology has yet to be put onto
development agenda of most developing countries. Amaral said he hopes
international organizations, such as TWAS, would play a more active role in
uniting various developing countries in scientific advancement.
Brazil also welcomes China's participation in its research plans, the
minister said.
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