LONG MARCH 5B ROCKET MAKES MAIDEN FLIGHT

China's Long March 5B carrier rocket made its first flight on Tuesday evening at the Wenchang Space Launch Center in Hainan province, marking a new chapter in the country's manned space program, according to the China Manned Space Agency.

The 18-story-tall rocket blasted off at 6 pm from a launchpad in the coastal center and soon thundered into the bright blue sky, video clips showed.

Nearly nine minutes later, it placed prototypes of China's next-generation manned spacecraft and an experimental cargo retrieval craft as well as more than 10 experimental payloads in low-Earth orbit, the agency said in a statement.

After the launch, the Communist Party of China Central Committee, the State Council and the Central Military Commission sent a letter to researchers, engineers and support staff involved in the mission, saying the country and the people are grateful for their contribution and that this remarkable success will inspire the entire nation.

The China Manned Space Agency said the flight successfully verified the overall design and technologies of the new rocket and also marked the beginning of the third stage in China's manned space program, which aims to put a manned space station into orbit.

Long March 5B is central to the space station program because it is now the only Chinese launch vehicle capable of carrying large space station parts into orbit.

Ji Qiming, a senior China Manned Space Agency official, said after the launch that three Long March 5B flights will be made to put major components of China's manned space station into orbit, where they will be assembled.

"In addition, four Long March 2F and four Long March 7 missions will be made by the end of 2022 to ferry astronauts and cargo ships to build the station," he said, adding that the selection of the third group of Chinese astronauts will be finished around July.

Zhou Jianping, the Chinese manned space program's chief designer, said the space station will inject huge momentum into the country's science and technology efforts.

With its payload of about 22 metric tons, Tuesday's mission made the Long March 5B the most powerful Chinese rocket when it comes to carrying capacity into low-Earth orbit. It also has realized a 62-year-old aspiration expressed at a CPC Central Committee meeting in May 1958 by Chairman Mao Zedong, who said that "we shall launch a 20,000-kilogram spacecraft" as he described the nation's desire to start its space program.

Long March 5B is the first variant of the Long March 5, which was launched on its third mission from the Wenchang center in December. It has one core stage and four boosters.

The rocket is 53.7 meters long, with a core-stage diameter of 5 meters. It is propelled by liquid oxygen, liquid hydrogen and kerosene and has a liftoff weight of 849 tons.

The largest difference between the appearance of the Long March 5 and Long March 5B is that the new model is about 4 meters shorter and that it has a much larger fairing−the largest of its kind among all Chinese carrier rockets, said Li Dong, chief designer of the Long March 5 family at the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology in Beijing.

FIRST BATCH OF DIGITAL SERVICE EXPORT BASES UNVEILED

A list of the first batch of 12 national digital service export bases was released recently, with digital service exports pressing the fast-forward button, People's Daily Overseas Edition reported.

The list was co-released by the Ministry of Commerce, Cyberspace Administration of China and Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, aiming to grasp opportunities in digital economic development, speed up digital service exports, and build these bases into key carriers for digital trade as well as a digital service export cluster.

The first batch of digital service export bases are: Zhongguancun Software Park, Tianjin Economic-Technological Development Area, Dalian High-Tech Industrial Zone, Shanghai Pudong Software Park, China (Nanjing) Software Valley, Hangzhou High-Tech Zone (Binjiang) IoT Industrial Park, Hefei High-Tech Industry Development Zone, Xiamen Software Park, Qilu Software Park, Guangzhou Tianhe Central Business District, Hainan Eco-Software Park and Chengdu Tianfu Software Park.

Building digital service export bases will promote China's digital trade development and digital technology application, foster new business models of foreign trade, create new advantages for international competition, and improve the high-quality development of service trade, said Gao Feng, spokesperson of the Ministry of Commerce.

Presently, the widely used digital technology plays an important role in the global fight against the coronavirus, while new models such as 5G, telecommuting, and online education and contract signing have witnessed burgeoning development.

The development of the digital economy covers the opening-up of digital services, digital technology application and much more, Pan Helin, executive director of the Digital Economy Academy of the Zhongnan University of Economics and Law in Hubei, told the newspaper.

The most significant contribution of establishing national digital service export bases is to build a digital industrial highland, Pan said, adding the move will further stimulate the development potential of the bases. In the future it will bring more outside support and accumulative effects, and also attract more talent.

Unlike traditional high-tech zones and digital industrial parks, building these bases should focus on digital service exports. Meanwhile, these bases are built not only to serve the domestic market, but also for the whole world. "So, from the beginning, we should set high standards, and strive to reach the level to draw up rules and standards for the sector," Pan said.

VIRUS HIGHLIGHTS NEED FOR DIGITAL CONNECTIVITY

One of the key long-term impacts of the novel coronavirus pandemic may be a profound change in how people work, learn and interact.

Over the last few decades, our jobs, our schools and our social lives have become progressively more digitalized−but the pandemic will dramatically accelerate that trend. The forced "lockdowns" experienced in almost all countries will, inevitably, change public perceptions about how we should live after the pandemic is contained. One of those changes is likely to be a widespread realization that many routine activities which we previously did face-to-face−such as work meetings and shopping−can be more easily and effectively done online.

But the world will only be able to take full advantage of the benefits of increased digital connectivity if and when every person, in every country, can access that technology.

NO EVIDENCE INDICATES NOVEL CORONAVIRUS LEAKED FROM CHINESE LAB

No current evidence suggests that novel coronavirus is leaked from a Chinese research laboratory, UK newspaper the Guardian reported on Monday, citing intelligence sources, contradicting recent White House claims that there is growing proof this is how the pandemic began.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Sunday: "I can tell you that there is a significant amount of evidence that this came from that laboratory in Wuhan." But he did not provide any of the alleged evidence.

As doubts about the high security Wuhan Institute of Virology are raising, US scientists who have worked with the Wuhan Institute add its safety standards are comparable to Western equivalents, according to the Guardian. And they said the prevailing theory is that the virus was passed onto humans via one of the country's live animal markets.

The Australia's Daily Telegraph highlighted a 15-page research document on Monday, accusing China of deliberately suppressing or destroying evidence of the novel coronavirus outbreak. The dossier, the sources said, was not culled from intelligence from the Five Eyes network, an alliance between the UK, the US, Australia, New Zealand and Canada.

Intelligence sources in Australia said they believed it was based on open source, public domain material, as the Guardian reported.

One told the newspaper they believed the information was most likely to have originally come from the US. "My instinct is that it was a tool for building a counter-narrative and applying pressure to China. So it's the intent behind it that's most important. So possibly open source leads with a classification slapped on it."

Downing Street said that the UK did not comment on intelligence matters – although British sources told the Guardian they did not recognize the dossier as based on classified information provided by the country's spy agencies.

Claims are even made that the virus was genetically engineered in Wuhan, although there is both scientific and intelligence agency agreement that there is no evidence for this, said the Guardian.

DISNEY TO OPEN SHANGHAI DISNEYLAND ON MAY 11

Disney plans to reopen its Shanghai theme park Monday under a series of health and safety procedures as it prepares to enter the first phase of recovery from the coronavirus pandemic, its executives announced Tuesday.

"We are seeing encouraging signs of a gradual return to some semblance of normalcy in China, and in light of the lifting of certain restrictions in recent weeks, and the successful re-opening of our park's adjacent retail and food and beverage areas, Disneytown, we and our government partners Shanghai Shendi Group, plan to open Shanghai Disneyland on May 11," said the company's newly appointed CEO Bob Chapek during its fiscal second-quarter earnings call.

Chapek said Disney plans to implement "a phased control" as it reopens its Shanghai facility, with attendance limits, an advanced reservation and entry system, and social distancing to control density of the crowds.

It will follow strict government-required health and prevention procedures, which included the use of masks (for both employees and visitors), temperature screening, and contact tracing and early detection systems. The only people in the park who will not wear masks will be the characters, but they will be at a distance from crowds, Chapek added.

CHINESE SURVEYORS SET OUT FOR REMEASURING MOUNT QOMOLANGMA HEIGHT

A team of over 30 Chinese surveyors left the base camp at Mount Qomolangma for a higher spot on its journey to the peak Wednesday as part of the country's mission to remeasure the height of the world's highest mountain.

China has launched a campaign to measure the height of Mount Qomolangma, which is known in the West as Mount Everest, the Ministry of Natural Resources announced on Thursday.

The remeasurement of the peak's height is a part of China's latest large-scale comprehensive scientific survey of Qomolangma, and the project is jointly organized by the Ministry of Natural Resources, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the General Administration of Sports of China, and the regional government of the Tibet autonomous region.

The 1st Geodetic Surveying Brigade under the Ministry of Natural Resources and the China Mountaineering Team are the two parties carrying out the project.

Preparation of the project was initiated in early March, with 53 surveyors from the 1st Geodetic Surveying Brigade getting stationed near Qomolangma to carry out adaptive climbing and training in other technical skills, and they are going to the survey on the summit of the mountain.

To ensure the accuracy of the measurement, and to work it in a more scientific way, experts from the Chinese Academy of Surveying and Mapping, the Shaanxi Bureau of Surveying, Mapping and Geoinfomrmation, and the China Geological Survey were invited to assist in the technical design and planning of the project from the beginning.

The technical innovation and breakthrough applied in the latest survey include the application of the BeiDou-3 Navigation Satellite System and advanced domestic surveying and mapping instruments.

Enriched with many high peaks, including Mount Qomolangma, Southwest China's Tibet has long been considered as a heaven for climbers from all over the world.

This spring, the region suspended climbing services for foreign climbing expedition teams, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

This year marks the 60th anniversary of the first successful expedition to Mount Qomolangma, and the 45th anniversary of China's first accurate measurement of Qomolangma's height.

The Chinese government has conducted six large-scale surveys and measurements on Qomolangma in the past few decades; it had successfully measured and announced the height the mountain in 1975 and 2005, respectively.

Chinese mountaineers and researchers climbed Mount Qomolangma in 1975 to determine its height afresh and concluded that the rock height of the peak was about 8,848.13 meters, and in 2005, the summit was measure at 8,844.43 meters (29,017 feet).

SPACECRAFT PROTOTYPE STARTS FIRST FLIGHT-TESTS

China has begun flight-tests of its new-generation manned spacecraft that will serve the country's future space station and lunar landings, according to the China Manned Space Agency.

The new spacecraft's first prototype was lifted into low-Earth orbit by the maiden mission of China's Long March 5B heavy-lift carrier rocket on Tuesday evening from the Wenchang Space Launch Center in Hainan province, the agency said in a statement sent to China Daily.

It said the flight was intended to verify key technologies and equipment for the new spaceship including devices for heat-resistance, control and recovery, adding the test results will be used for further improvements.

The statement noted that once put into formal service, the new manned spaceship will feature world-class designs and technologies, high reliability and flexibility, reusability and multiple functions.

It will consist of two major parts — a re-entry module that will house astronauts and serve as the control center for the entire craft during a spaceflight, and a service module that will contain power and propulsion systems.

The new spaceship will have a length of nearly 9 meters, a diameter of 4.5 meters and a payload of 22 metric tons.

It will be tasked with serving the construction and operation of China's future space station as well as the country's manned lunar missions that are being planned by scientists, the agency explained.

Designers at the China Academy of Space Technology in Beijing said that compared with the Shenzhou series, the country's operational crewed spacecraft family, the new model will be capable of conducting longer missions, housing more astronauts and cargo, and operating in a tougher environment.

For instance, it will be able to accommodate up to seven astronauts while the Shenzhou can carry at most three. It can transport large amounts of materials between Earth and a space station, a function Shenzhou does not possess.

The new spaceship will also boast better working and living quarters than those in Shenzhou. There will be specific areas inside it for astronauts' mission control, dining, entertainment and personal hygiene, making their journey more comfortable, designers said.

"The new-generation manned spacecraft will assist many ambitious plans of Chinese scientists such as placing Chinese astronauts on the moon," said industry observer Xing Qiang, founder of Micro-Rocket Union, a nonprofit space research organization in Beijing.

All three space powers-China, Russia and the United States-are developing new manned spacecraft. The US is building the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle, Dragon 2 and CST-100 Starliner, and Russia is working on its Oryol spacecraft.

SENIORS RETURN TO HIGH SCHOOL IN WUHAN

High school seniors in Wuhan, Hubei province — the hardest hit area in China by the COVID-19 pandemic — returned to school on Wednesday morning.

Wuhan on Wednesday reopened its first batch of 121 high schools 10 days after the city announced itself clear of COVID-19 patients, with a total number of 57,800 senior students returning.

All students need to wear masks to enter campuses and receive a temperature check upon entry. They then need to wash their hands and receive one more temperature check before entering classrooms.

Schools will conduct lectures with no more than 30 students in each classroom to make sure each student is adequately distanced.

Some boarding students returned to their dormitories on Tuesday. Hongshan High School, for example, measured students' body temperatures twice and conducted three sterilization procedures before allowing them to return to their rooms.

Some schools also arranged different times for teachers and students to enter or leave to avoid crowding.

On Monday, nine schools in Hongshan District also conducted emergency drills in case any fever patient is discovered.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

The events of life are mainly small events - they only seem large when we are close to them. - Mark Twain