Posted: Sat, Mar 22, 2003, 1:07 PM ET (1807 GMT)
China's space program has no plans to carry out unmanned missions to Mars before the middle of the next decade, Chinese officials have been quoted as saying. SpaceDaily reported Thursday that Luan Enjie, the administrator of the China National Space Administration, told the Hong Kong newspaper Wen Wei Po that there are no plans to launch any spacecraft to Mars before 2015. In the meantime the country plans to focus on a program of unmanned lunar exploration that Chinese media reported earlier this month. Luan said his agency had also mapped out a development program called the "2-1-1 Project". The "2" in the project name refers to the development of standardized spacecraft busses and modularized launch vehicles, while the two "1"'s referred to creating an upgraded ground control and communications system, as well as long-term planetary exploration.

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