Satellite anniversary promises a stellar future

This year marks the 50th anniversary of China's maiden space mission, which placed the country's first satellite into orbit in April 1970.

As a reporter who usually writes dozens of stories about people and developments in the space sector each year, I am truly looking forward to the country's space program in the coming months.

We will see China's first Mars exploration mission that will release a rover to roam on the red planet; the fourth lunar expedition, which will bring back samples from the moon, 44 years after the world's most recent sample-return mission; and the manned program's new steps that will pave the way for construction of a massive space station and a lunar scientific outpost.