Celebrating China Space Day: More global collaboration on space exploration expected

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Wednesday marks China's fourth annual Space Day. The theme of this year's event is "pursuing space dreams for win-win cooperation". Domestic and international experts have gathered in Changsha city of Hunan province to discuss space technology and seek future collaboration. CGTN's Wu Lei has more.

While space is the final frontier, exploring the unknown is a driving force behind human advancement. The first launch of China's space station mission is expected to be carried out in the first half of next year. The station is scheduled to become fully operational by 2022.

SIMONETTA DI PIPPO, DIRECTOR UNITED NATIONS OFFICE FOR OUTER SPACE AFFAIRS "We issued an announcement of opportunity for all members of the UN for proposing experiments to be flown on the China space station, we received more than 40 proposals, and now we are currently in the process of selecting a few winners."

The space station is expected to have one core module and two lab modules with a design life of 10 years. Experts say China's future space exploration will generate more joint space missions and experiments.

AMER NADEEM, CHAIRMAN PAKISTAN SPACE AND UPPER ATMOSPHERE RESEARCH COMMISSION "We intend to send one of our astronauts to the China space station by 2022. We are working on that, hopefully, the agreements will be signed very soon."

China National Space Administration has also announced several plans to support the United Nation's goals of realizing sustainable development.

WU YANHUA, VICE ADMINISTRATOR CHINA NATIONAL SPACE ADMINISTRATION "China hopes to build a space information corridor and share satellite data. In addition to boosting domestic economic development, Chinese space technology will also better serve developing countries in the Belt and Road Initiative."

Space pursuits have become an integral part of human life and our daily activities. Many countries, particularly developing ones remain hard at work finding solutions to make the best use of space technology to improve their social development.

WU LEI CHANGSHA "Better exploration of space will always require global collaboration. As China's space mission moves ahead, a growing number of countries expect to take part in these joint projects in manned space missions and deep space exploration. WL, CGTN, Changsha City, Hunan province."