BEIJING (AP) – China has recommitted itself to completing its orbiting space station by the end of the year and says it is planning more than 40 launches for 2022, putting it roughly level with the United States (US).

Launches would include those of two Shenzhou crewed missions, two Tianzhou cargo spacecraft and the station’s additional two modules, the official Xinhua News Agency reported yesterday, citing a recent announcement by the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC).

Named Mengtian and Wentian, the science modules will join the Tianhe core module that is currently home to a three-person crew. The launch schedule shows how China’s traditionally cautious programme is increasing the cadence of its missions as it seeks to take a leading role in space exploration.

Among the most anticipated is the launch expected around March of the Space Launch System – a 1,010-metre-tall rocket slated for future lunar missions.

China’s military-run space programme was barred from the International Space Station, mainly due to US objections.

Working largely on its own, China has pushed ahead with its Tiangong space station programme, building and then abandoning two experimental stations before embarking on
the latest iteration.

The current six-month mission Shenzhou-13 by the crew aboard Tianhe is China’s longest since it first put a human in space in 2003, becoming only the third country to do so after Russia and the US.

The crew has conducted a pair of spacewalks – including the first by a Chinese female astronaut – and carried out tests alongside the station’s robotic service arm, which yesterday successfully undocked then re-docked the Tianzhou-2 cargo spacecraft for the first time.

The three are the second crew on the permanent station, which upon completion will weigh about 66 tonnes, about a quarter the size of the ISS, which launched its first module in 1998 and weighs around 450 tonnes.

China has also chalked up success with un-crewed missions, and its lunar exploration programme generated media buzz last year when its Yutu 2 rover sent back pictures of what was described by some as a “mystery hut” but was most likely only a rock of some sort.

The rover is the first to be placed on the little-explored far side of the moon.

China’s Chang’e 5 probe returned lunar rocks to Earth for the first time since the 1970s in December 2000 and another Chinese rover is searching for evidence of life on Mars.

MOSCOW (AP) – Security forces killed dozens of protesters and 12 police died during extraordinarily violent demonstrations in Kazakhstan that saw government buildings stormed and set ablaze, authorities said yesterday.

One police officer was found beheaded in escalating unrest that poses a growing challenge to authoritarian rule in the Central Asian nation.

Despite the severe response by authorities, protesters took the streets again in the country’s largest city, Almaty, a day after breaking into the presidential residence and the mayor’s office there.

Police were out in force again, including in the capital of Nur-Sultan, which was reportedly quiet, and Russian troops were on their way.

Russia’s Sputnik news service reported that shots were fired as police surrounded one group of about 200 protesters in the city. So far, 2,000 people have been arrested, the Interior Ministry said.

In the unrest on Wednesday, “dozens of attackers were liquidated”, police spokeswoman Saltanat Azirbek told state news channel Khabar-24, using a term common to describe the killing of people thought to be extremists by law enforcement.

Twelve police officers were killed in the unrest and 353 injured, according to city officials cited by the channel.

Tens of thousands of people, some reportedly carrying clubs and shields, have taken to the streets in recent days in the worst protests the country has seen since gaining independence from the Soviet Union three decades ago. Although the demonstrations began over a near-doubling of prices for a type of vehicle fuel, their size and rapid spread suggest they reflect wider discontent in the country that has been under the rule of the same party since independence.

The government yesterday announced a 180-day price cap on vehicle fuel and a moratorium on raising utility rates – an attempt to address the economic issues that catalysed the protests, though it was unclear what, if any, effect the moves would have.

The president has vacillated between attempts at mollifying the protesters, including accepting the resignation of his government, and promising harsh measures to quell the unrest, which he blamed on “terrorist bands”.

Worries that a broader crackdown could be on the horizon grew after he called on a Russia-led military alliance for help. Severe interruptions to internet service also raised concern and made it difficult – sometimes impossible – for news of what was happening inside Kazakhstan to get out. In other apparent attempts to seal the country off, the airports in Almaty and one other city have also been shut.

The military alliance, the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), said early yesterday that it would send peacekeeper troops to Kazakhstan at Tokayev’s request.

The operation is the first military action by the CSTO – an indication that Kazakhstan’s neighbours, particularly Russia, are concerned that the unrest could spread.

Russia and Kazakhstan share close relations and a 7600-kilometre border, much of it along open steppes. Russia’s manned space-launch facility, the Baikonur Cosmodrome, is in Kazakhstan.

The size and duties of the peacekeeping force have not been specified. Russia has already begun sending forces, according to the CSTO, which also includes Kazakhstan, Armenia, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.

But Kyrgyzstan’s presidential spokesman, Erbol Sutanbaev, said his country’s contingent must be approved by Parliament and said that the troops would not take actions involving demonstrators.

It was not immediately clear if any of the Russian forces had arrived in Kazakhstan.

Tokayev has imposed a two-week state of emergency for the whole country, including an overnight curfew and a ban on religious services.

Of the five Central Asian republics that gained independence following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Kazakhstan is by far the largest and the wealthiest, spanning a territory the size of Western Europe and sitting atop colossal reserves of oil, natural gas, uranium and
precious metals.