China has made progress in its research on space debris, including ways to better protect its space vehicles in orbit from colliding with such objects, a senior Chinese space official said on Wednesday.

Guo Baozhu, deputy director of the China National Space Administration, said the research would help to prolong the life span of space vehicles and protect the safety of China's planned manned space flights.

China National Space Administration has improved its monitoring facilities for space debris since 1995, and it achieved outstanding results in two international operations to monitor re-entry of dangerous space objects, said the deputy director.

Chinese scientists also built a database for tractable space debris and established a theoretical basis for research into risk evaluation of space debris.

Chinese space scientists developed software for early warning for space vehicles, and simulation tests of collisions involving space debris and space vehicles, said the official.

He acknowledged that China's research also helped reduce the likelihood of disintegration of the end of the carrier rockets through new ways to discharge remaining propellants.

China started its research program on space debris in June 1995,when it joined the Inter-Agency Space Debris Coordination Committee, an international organization.

By the end of the year 2000, China formulated its action agenda on space debris for 2001-2005.

The official noted that China would focus its attention on research programs to protect its spaceflight and space vehicles from space debris.

Professor Du Heng, chief scientist at the Center for Space Science and Applied Research under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, reportedly told a workshop on space debris earlier this month that China has developed an alarm system capable of keeping its spaceship Shenzhou V away from the orbit of space debris by automatically changing its propulsion and speed.

The center is keeping a close watch over 9,131 traceable pieces of space debris to screen those that are most likely to get in the way of the spaceship, the official English-language newspaper China Daily reported on Monday.

Space debris refers to artificial objects or fragments cast off in space, whether deliberately or unintentionally. Since the former Soviet Union sent the first craft into space in 1957, more than 26,000 objects have been sent into space by the humankind.

Now there are a total of 9,131 traceable debris objects in space, together with a wealth of smaller pieces, moving at great speed.

(Xinhua News Agency August 14, 2003)