China's Space Program - From Conception to Manned Spaceflight (Springer Praxis Books)

This is one of those rare books that provides credible information about Chinese aerospace technology, particularly in rocketry. The book is very easy to read and is divided in sub sections that makes it more organized. However, this book does not provide all or fully details information about the Chinese technology in rocketry. I dont blame them since the Chinese rocketry industry is still clouded with secrecy and most information are still classified. Despite this, this book provides the best and most detail information I have read so far.

China is still a developing country. But it has the distinction of being only the third country to launch a human into space, after Russia and the US. Harvey tells of the arduous path that China took. There have been the driving forces of international prestige and the building of a credible nuclear deterrent. The latter has required the ability to launch missiles into space in a controlled manner.Harvey has conducted impressive research into a subject still heavily shrouded in secrecy. He describes many successes made by the Chinese. But also failures. Though the reader should remember that Russia and America have had their share of disasters, including the loss of lives.The text also shows that in recent years, the Chinese space program has increasingly turned to commercial applications. Notably satellite imaging of the earth and communications. This reflects China's massive growth, with the increased need for such tasks as better analysis of weather patterns for agriculture. Also, the space program has started to perform more scientific research. All of this is a good sign for the future, both for China and the rest of the world.

China is clearly one of the space players in this century. Her resources are ample, both regarding technical knowhow and intellectual power, there is an unfailing sense of the ultimate goal - manned presence outside the Earth, and the intermediate goals - using the space for earthly purposes, are well understood. The Chinese space programme dates from the fifties, when the US, to their ultimate regret, evicted one of the fine minds who, at that time, was busy pioneering American astronautics. Political unrest - to say the least - on and off threatened to derail the development of missile technology, launchers and satellite technology. The space leaders come through as steadfast in the turmoil of the times, and as the political leadership in China moved from revolutionary fervour onto controlled economic evolution, so the space programme has moved more steadily tovards orderly development. All this and more are presented in this book, which bears the Harvey hallmark of being well researched, lucidly expositioned and showing deep insight in the subject at hand. I read it as one reads a novel of suspence and mystery, it now occupies a honored place along my other reference litterature on space. When, during the coming years, we await new Chinese exploits in space, we need the understanding put forth in this book on the Chinese approach to development. Harvey illustrates how, in face of adversities, the Chinese space leaders, like the proverbial turtle, contrive to move slowly but inexorably towards their goals, when the hares in and of the United States fritters away resources by jumping hither and yon. It may well be that the tortoise yet overtakes the hare, if not in a race to the surface of the Moon, then to the sands of Mars.

For those in the West with little overall knowlwdge of the Chinese space effort, this is the primer. The book provides a fun read through the preperations and efforts to launch the first Chinese human to space orbit. Brian Harvey provides very useful insight to those who are looking globally in the human quest for space access. The book provides hope that the third nation to launch humans to space will mature and take serious the rhetoric of building a space station, or better yet, a Chinese program to put humans on the Moon. Harvey's book would have been made better with utilization of color photos splashed about the book.

Probably the most complete book about the Chinese space program available in English literature. There are a lot of books about the Soviet/Russian space program available in English and other languages since the beginning of the Space Race (the most complete is probably Asif Siddiqi's books for English readers and Pierre Baland's book for French readers) but very few about the country who invented the rocket, even if China realized several milestone during the Cold War. Curiously, few authors seem interested in the Chinese space effort perhaps because of the language barrier.This book is very easy to read and accessible to everyone. The author probably reunited in his book all non-confidential information he find during his research. Every space enthusiast should read this book since few people in the West have a overall knowledge about China space history even if China is the fith nation to launch a satellite and the third nation to accomplish a manned orbital spaceflight. People often assume that China only copied the Soviet/Russian or stolen their technology but a better understanding of Chinese space effort shows that even if the Chinese benefited of Russian technology transfer, a lot of development were realized by the Chinese people itself since the USSR and China split in 1960.