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I wanted to know if China has a different approach or methodology for space exploration. China seems really fast in putting their first space station module in orbit compared to the US and Russia.

Did China gather all data and technology from scratch? Has China used NASA's and USSR's data and technology for initial start-up?

Does China share this information and technology with Public ?

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    $\begingroup$ Borrowed liberally from Russian tech. Have you read the Wikipedia article? $\endgroup$ – Deer Hunter May 18 '15 at 12:00
  • $\begingroup$ AFAIK, pretty much all of NASA's development is public domain, so why on earth wouldn't they use it? $\endgroup$ – jamesqf May 18 '15 at 19:37
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    $\begingroup$ NASA publishes broad overviews of the technology in use. This is a great starting point, but very far from a functioning rocket. $\endgroup$ – Rikki-Tikki-Tavi May 18 '15 at 23:53
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    $\begingroup$ @jamesqf Does China share the information and technology with Public ? $\endgroup$ – knowledge flow May 19 '15 at 5:42
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    $\begingroup$ I suspect this may be a little broad ... $\endgroup$ – Everyone May 19 '15 at 6:43
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China did not develop a space program from scratch. Before the 1960 Sino-Soviet split, there was ample cooperation between the Soviet Union and China in rocket development. This can still be seen in the design of their rockets, for example the use of swirl injectors and UDMH as a fuel.

A lot of know-how also came from the western rocket development by von Brauns group (first Penemünde, then Canaveral), by way of one of the project's top scientists, Qian Xuesen. After a long career as a scientist and technician in the US, which included the questioning of von Brauns people after the war and co-founding JPL, he was denounced during the McCarthy era, for his Chinese birthplace, and went back there. He went on to head the Chinese launcher development.

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    $\begingroup$ Does China share the information and tech with Public, or Nasa or Russia ? $\endgroup$ – knowledge flow May 19 '15 at 6:33
  • $\begingroup$ @knowledgeflow None of those, I think. NASA is forbidden by Congress to cooperate with China, China does not publish anything of value, and I don't think they share much with Russia. $\endgroup$ – Rikki-Tikki-Tavi May 19 '15 at 9:38

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