IT’S testbed may have fallen to Earth earlier this year. But China says it has learnt enough to commit to building a massive new space station. And it’s invited the world to get aboard.

“CSS belongs not only to China, but also to the world,” UN ambassador Shi Zhongjun told the state-run Xinhua news agency. “All countries, regardless of their size and level of development, can participate in the co-operation on an equal footing.”

It’s an open hand of welcome that has been denied to China itself.

The United States enforces a strict technological transfer ban on Beijing.

This extends to it sending astronauts or experiments to the existing International Space Station (ISS).

But, with President Trump signalling an early end to US participation in the ISS project by 2025, China has sensed an opportunity.

It’s already committed to a bold new campaign to explore the Moon.

Now it wants to take a giant leap forward in the space race — and win worldwide support in the process. It’s proposed a Chinese Space Station (CSS) and invited UN members to participate.

Beijing has tendered documents to the UN stating the initial components of the new space station should become operational as early as 2022. Ultimately, it wants an orbital outpost capable of supporting up to six astronauts for durations of up to 180 days.

The space station’s central module, dubbed Harmony of the Heavens, is reportedly already complete. It is due to be mounted on a rocket in 2020.

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The European Space Agency (ESA) has already accepted a deal which will allow its astronauts to use China’s space station once it is in orbit. International corporations such as Robert Bigelow’s inflatable module producing project are in the process of being courted.

Meanwhile, NASA faces serious cutbacks threatening its $4-billion-per-year commitment to keeping the ISS operational.

Even if funding continues, the ISS is beginning to age. Its first module was launched in 1988. Construction was completed in 2010. It’s been permanently occupied for almost 18 years.

While NASA and other ISS partners have begun to discuss its replacement, the Trump Presidency wants to end public funding and instead promote a commercial project.

CHINA ON WAY TO MOON

China’s ambition to soft-land a spacecraft on the far side of the moon later this year faces considerable challenges, but if successful would propel the country’s space program to the forefront of one of the most important areas of lunar exploration, experts say.

China hopes to be the first country to complete such a landing. It has just launched a relay satellite to facilitate communication between controllers on Earth and the upcoming Chang’e 4 mission.

The moon’s far side is also known as the dark side because it faces away from Earth and remains comparatively unknown.

Creating the ability to explore the far side of the Moon is an impressive achievement, John M. Logsdon of George Washington University’s Space Policy Institute told AP in an email.

“Spacefaring countries around the globe are focusing a great deal of attention on lunar exploration, and this far side capability, if it comes into being, will put China in a leading position with respect to that objective,” Logsdon said.

However, getting the relay satellite into the proper position will be tricky and marks only a first step in pulling off the landing, he said.

“Doing things in space, especially at a far distance from Earth, remains hard, so success is far from assured,” Logsdon said.

A far side soft-landing would be a “world historical first,” said Bernard Foing, head of the European Space Agency’s International Lunar Exploration Working Group, which has collaborated with the Chinese program.

That would offer a “deep science opportunity to study the far side,” which has a different composition from sites on the near side, where previous missions have landed, Foing said.

However, he too warned of the difficulties ahead, saying it would be a “great challenge using the relay orbiter for control and data.”

Such a communications relay link is needed for communication with a spacecraft on the far side because the moon’s rocky bulk would otherwise block contact with Earth.

China previously landed its Jade Rabbit rover on the moon and plans to land its Chang’e 5 probe there next year and have it return to Earth with samples — the first time that would have been done since 1976.

China has already obtained the “technological basis” to put astronauts on the moon, the chief designer of the manned space program, Zhou Jianping, told a conference last month.

“We have had in-depth discussions with many experts about manned lunar exploration, and conducted research on key technologies in recent years,” Zhou said.