Though the CNSA was formed in 1993, the People's Republic of China had a sustained ballistic missile (and later space launch system) program during the 1970s and 1980s, successfully proving out several ballistic missiles and eventually launching several satellites. It was during this time that the Long March family of launchers began their operational history. After the creation of the CNSA, other firsts occurred with the first 'Taikonaut' launching in a Shenzhou spacecraft in 2003; though having a heritage from Soyuz, Shenzhou is Chinese-built. This was followed-up with other crewed missions and smaller temporary space stations before the current space station, Tiangong, began construction in the third decade of the twenty-first century.
As with the United States, Chinese has seen a group of commercial launch services companies work hard to start building the next generation of Chinese launch vehicles. As with the United States, these commercial providers are also able to take advantage of government launch complexes.
Human spaceflight encompasses a more complex, strategic national program. As a result, human spaceflight is managed through the China Manned Space Program (which reports into the Central Military Commission) - while CNSA is part of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.
Due to disagreement between governments, the CNSA is not able to collaborate with NASA due to constraints in United States law.
