Well that sucks.
Is anyone here a big follower of the Chinese space programme? I follow "western" space efforts pretty closely, but with heavy military involvement, a preoccupation with face-saving, and the language barrier, I find the Chinese programme nigh on impossible to track. Do they have the same sort of spending split that NASA has with respect to the manned v. unmanned programmes? Or does their unmanned programme get substantially more than a pittance? As things stand, I'm not even able to tell if they are actually serious about space outside of military use, or if it's all just a prestige play. Anyone care to fill in some detail?