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China space program reveals five-year plan

BEIJING — China intends to launch space labs and manned ships and prepare to build space stations over the next five years, according to a plan released yesterday that shows the country’s space program is gathering momentum.

China has already said its eventual goals are to have a space station and put an astronaut on the moon. It has made methodical progress with its ambitious lunar and human-spaceflight programs, but its latest five-year plan signals an acceleration.

The country, which sees its space industry as a symbol of prestige, will continue exploring the moon using probes, start gathering samples of the moon’s surface and “push forward its exploration of planets, asteroids and the sun.”