Manned space program costs China 18 billion yuan
( 2003-10-16 17:02) (Xinhua)
The Chinese government has in all allocated 18 billion yuan (about 2.2
billion US dollars) for its manned space program by the time of successful
return of the Shenzhou-5 space vehicle Thursday morning, according to a press
release Thursday.
That translated into 1.6 billion yuan (about 200 million US dollars) in
annual average expenditure for the 11-year-old program since 1992.
China's gross domestic product in 2002 was about 10 trillion yuan (1.2
trillion US dollars).
China's funding for science and technology programs from the central
government totaled 267 billion yuan during the past five years, or an annual
average of 32 billion yuan (3.9 billion US dollars), according to Science and
Technology Ministry.
The fund for manned space program was mainly used for
scientific research, manufacturing of equipment and instruments, the
construction of essential facilities for research and tests, and consequently a
system complete with all necessary departments of research, production and test
related to manned spaceflight was established.
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