Bradley Perrett covered China, Japan, South Korea and Australia. He is a Mandarin-speaking Australian.
Before joining Aviation Week in 2006 he was a macroeconomics, politics and aerospace journalist with Reuters. Perrett holds a bachelor’s degree in law from Macquarie University, Sydney. He left Aviation Week in 2020.
Bradley Perrett (Beijing), Frank Morring, Jr. (Washington), Craig Covault (Cape Canaveral)
The immediate future of the U.S., European, Japanese and Chinese space programs is on the line this week as critical human and robotic operations are underway in orbits of the Earth and Moon. As Japn continues its multi-spacecraft Selene mission in lunar orbits, China is poised to send its first spacecraft to the Moon on a mission aided by the European Space Agency (ESA). The space shuttle Discovery is docked at the International Space Station for the most ambitious contruction mission yet at the orbital outpost.
BEIJING - A Long March 3A rocket boosted China's Chang'e 1 lunar mission into an initial Earth orbit of 205 by 50,930 kilometers (127 by 31,650 miles) from the Xichang launch center in Sichuan province on Oct. 24, three days after the end of the Communist Party's latest congress. If it can overcome such key challenges as tracking and control in deep space, Chang'e 1 will open the way for Chinese scientists to move on to their next moon shot - the launch of a rover as early as 2012.
The Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) is seeking applications for commercial use of its Kibo section of the International Space Station, due to be launched in three shuttle missions starting in February. In doing so, it is trying to overcome corporate reluctance to commit spending on projects that would be done in a facility that has been delayed repeatedly and still isn’t in orbit.
