China has vowed to push ahead with plans to launch its own first manned space mission this year despite the Columbia tragedy.
Mr Tu Shou'e, an astronautics academic at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said: "The key work now is to learn lessons from the accident to make our programme better and to make the dream of the Chinese people of reaching into space come true."
The Columbia space shuttle disintegrated on Saturday over central Texas as it re-entered earth's atmosphere, killing all seven astronauts on board.
While expressing regret at the incident, Tu said accidents were bound to happen as humanity pushed back the boundaries of space exploration.
"Human exploration into space is very dangerous and very hard and accidents are inevitable, but the accident won't stop the human step into space," he said.
Other Chinese space experts agreed that China should learn from the Columbia incident rather than pull back from its dream of sending a human into orbit.
Mr Liang Sili, an academic at the International Space Institute, said: "We can learn lessons from Columbia. We should do more preparations before we launch our spacecraft."
Mr Min Guirong, another astronautics expert at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said the Columbia disaster "would not have a direct impact on China's space programme."
He said unlike US space shuttles, China's spacecraft were not reused during unmanned launches.
In a message expressing condolences to US President George W. Bush on Sunday, Chinese President Jiang Zemin also insisted space exploration must continue, saying humanity should "make further progress in space exploration despite the setback."
China has so far launched four unmanned spaceflights, the last of which, Shenzhou IV, successfully returned to earth on January 5 after a 162-hour mission.
[ZT]
Mr Tu Shou'e, an astronautics academic at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said: "The key work now is to learn lessons from the accident to make our programme better and to make the dream of the Chinese people of reaching into space come true."
The Columbia space shuttle disintegrated on Saturday over central Texas as it re-entered earth's atmosphere, killing all seven astronauts on board.
While expressing regret at the incident, Tu said accidents were bound to happen as humanity pushed back the boundaries of space exploration.
"Human exploration into space is very dangerous and very hard and accidents are inevitable, but the accident won't stop the human step into space," he said.
Other Chinese space experts agreed that China should learn from the Columbia incident rather than pull back from its dream of sending a human into orbit.
Mr Liang Sili, an academic at the International Space Institute, said: "We can learn lessons from Columbia. We should do more preparations before we launch our spacecraft."
Mr Min Guirong, another astronautics expert at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said the Columbia disaster "would not have a direct impact on China's space programme."
He said unlike US space shuttles, China's spacecraft were not reused during unmanned launches.
In a message expressing condolences to US President George W. Bush on Sunday, Chinese President Jiang Zemin also insisted space exploration must continue, saying humanity should "make further progress in space exploration despite the setback."
China has so far launched four unmanned spaceflights, the last of which, Shenzhou IV, successfully returned to earth on January 5 after a 162-hour mission.
[ZT]
