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CRI:

We know that two weeks ago, the U.S. SpaceX company successfully recovered a carrier rocket on a floating sea platform, a milestone in the human history of astronautics. It brought back the world's attention to commercial space flight. Apart from the United States, all major astronautic powers in the world have been actively promoting commercial space flights, which saw SpaceX and its peer companies rushing to take part in space exploration. What is the current development of China's commercial space flight? When will China's own 'SpaceX' appear?

Xu Dazhe:

SpaceX recovered the first-stage booster with success. But to be able to reuse and to relaunch the recovered rocket is a long way away. While we respect the courage of SpaceX, having only booster recovery technology is not enough to make low-cost launches or reduce the general cost of astronautics. It requires us to keep working on engineering and technological development as well as change the way we launch rockets. Lowering costs is a pursuit for us in the engineering sector, and in that way we can reduce expenses, making it more affordable. We should learn from our peers their courage in this regard.

Speaking of commercial space flights, China is already in the business. As I mentioned just now, China has been in the space flight service for many countries, and with all of them we signed contracts. But how we should make the most of social resources and make them serve the astronautic industry is a matter that our government is concerned about. We have an open attitude; we encourage social resources to contribute to the astronautic sector.

In addition, I wish to say that the country set up the National Day of Space Flight to raise the entire society's attention to astronautics, so that all kinds of companies, including those in the private sector, will actively contribute to the development of China's astronautic industry. At the same time, astronautics is a high-risk industry and requires every legal person and every enterprise to carefully understand the opportunities. China has raised the integration of military and civil efforts to the importance of national strategy. In so doing, we hope more resources from the private sector will come to China's national defense and astronautic industries. We welcome their participation, and will make more active policies to facilitate the development of commercial space flight.

China Xiaokang (www.chxk.com.cn):

Mr. Xu, as you also serve as chairman of the China Atomic Energy Authority, my question is related to the country's atomic energy. The Fourth Nuclear Security Summit was successfully held in Washington in early April of this year. Nuclear safety has been given close attention by the international community in recent years. As a major nuclear country, what effort and progress has China made in strengthening its own nuclear safety? I hope Mr. Xu can answer this question.

Xu Dazhe:

This question has somewhat slightly deviated from our theme today, but I can still answer your question. Nuclear resources can be very well and peacefully used for the benefit of mankind. However, in order to help the nuclear industry enjoy healthy development, we must pay close attention to nuclear safety and consider it a top priority. China has done a lot of work in the field of nuclear safety. From late March to early April, I paid a visit to Washington. Our approaches to replacing high-enriched uranium with low-enriched uranium and building a nuclear security demonstration center have been recognized by society. We must perform well in nuclear science and nuclear medicine, because they are closely related to our health and our moderately prosperous society. Now, how to make better use of nuclear power and whether we can safely use nuclear power to reach more distant planets are the questions asked of our engineers and scientists. Both of the areas are related to safety, the people's livelihood and our economic development. The purposes are the same. We want to make peaceful use of nuclear energy, and we want to enhance the well-being of mankind. Thank you.

Hu Kaihong:

That's all for today's press conference. Thank you, Mr. Xu.

Xu Dazhe:

Thank you to all of our friends from the press.

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