BEIJING — China will promote aerospace development, strengthen international cooperation and contribute Chinese wisdom, plans and strength in man’s peaceful utilization of outer space, said an official with China National Space Administration (CNSA) on April 17.

Zhao Jian, deputy director of the Department of System Engineering of CNSA, said at a press conference that the “Forum on Space Solutions: Realizing the Sustainable Development Goals” will be held in Changsha, capital of central China’s Hunan province, from April 24 to 27.

The forum, co-organized by the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs and the CNSA, aims to bring together space application users and solution providers to forge new partnerships, enhance international space cooperation and contribute to the attainment of the sustainable development goals, according to Zhao.

Since 2016, China has set April 24 as the country’s Space Day to mark the launch of its first satellite into space on April 24, 1970.

This year’s theme is to “pursue space dream for win-win cooperation”.

About 200 space officials, engineers and scientists from nearly 50 countries will participate in activities for Space Day in China this year.

During the same period, the CNSA and the European Space Agency will jointly organize a forum on Earth observation, while a Sino-Russian Moon observation forum will also be held.

Zhao mentioned that China and France had deepened space cooperation in recent years.

China successfully sent an ocean-observing satellite into space in October of 2018, a joint mission pursued under close Sino-French space cooperation that enabled scientists for the first time to simultaneously study oceans, surface winds and waves.

China’s Chang’e-4 mission, which made the first-ever soft landing on the far side of the moon earlier this year, embodies China’s hope to combine wisdom in space exploration, with four payloads developed by the Netherlands, Germany, Sweden and Saudi Arabia.

In February 2018, a seismic-electromagnetic satellite, jointly developed by China and Italy, was launched to study seismic precursors, which might help establish a ground-space earthquake monitoring and forecasting network.

China and Brazil had conducted space cooperation for more than 30 years, with a new Earth resources satellite, jointly developed by the two countries, to be launched this year, Zhao added.