Beijing’s space program put a human into orbit in less than four decades, and plans a Chinese moonwalk soon. China’s Five-Year Plan calls for accelerated efforts to explore planets, asteroids and the sun. This 52-minute documentary explores the Chinese history of the “Science of Heaven”, establishing links to Beijing’s most recent explorations in astronomy and astrophysics.

For thousands of years, Chinese astronomers have watched the sky, day and night, seeking “symbols from above, which show good or bad fortune” as the Yi Jing or “Book of Changes” put it. They carefully logged observations of comets for 22 centuries, including Halley’s Comet which returns every 76 years.  Yet they never used their vast collection of data points to deduce mathematical theories about the movement of planets and comets as European observers such as Galileo, Kepler or Newton did. But China’s been catching up; Beijing’s space program put a human into orbit in less than four decades, and plans a Chinese moonwalk soon. China’s Five-Year Plan calls for accelerated efforts to explore planets, asteroids and the sun. This 52-minute documentary explores the Chinese history of the “Science of Heaven”, establishing links to Beijing’s most recent explorations in astronomy and astrophysics.  The filmmakers visited remote Chinese observatories, witnessed the final construction phase of the world’s largest radio telescope in Guizhou – and hopes to tag along with China’s Lunar Program.

To RSVP, please email communications.ras.bj@gmail.com and write “Heaven” in the subject header.