China is not the only Asian nation investing heavily in space [EPA]

China's latest manned space launch and what is expected to be its first ever spacewalk is intended to be another showcase achievement for a nation intent on demonstrating its technological clout.

But China is not the only Asian nation investing heavily in space - Japan, India and South Korea also all operate ambitious space programmes in varying degrees of development with plans for a range of manned and unmanned missions.

All have their eyes on a share of the commercial satellite launch business and see a foothold in space as important to their future international standing and economic growth.

But the growing interest in space also has security implications, with some analysts warning of a potential arms race as these emerging space powers look to develop military applications in space, both for intelligence gathering and potential space-based weapons.

Japan

Japan first made its mark as a space power almost 40 years ago, with the launch of the Ohsumi-1 satellite in 1970.

The H-2A rocket carried aloft Japan's first unmanned lunar probe in 2007 [EPA]

In the subsequent years, however, a string of financial and mechanical setbacks cast doubts on the future of the country's space programme.

The indigenously-developed H-2 rocket suffered a series of embarrassing – and explosive – failures in the mid-1990s, sending engineers back to their drawing boards and producing a shake-up in management.

Reorganised under the JAXA national space agency – the Japanese equivalent of Nasa – and driven by anxiety over rival China's achievements in space, recent years have seen major steps forward.

The unreliable H-2 has been reborn as the H-2A, a rocket which successfully carried aloft Japan's first unmanned lunar probe, Kaguya, in late 2007. It subsequently sent back the first high definition video images of the moon's surface.

JAXA now has plans to send probes to Mars and beyond, as well as to send its first manned mission to the moon around the year 2020, with a view to constructing a lunar base 10 years later.

Japan is also a key player in the International Space Station project, and earlier this year saw its first permanent manned foothold in space deployed in the form of the Kibo laboratory – the largest module added to the station.

Recent years have also seen Japan step up its military and defence interest in space, driven by what it sees as the growing challenge posed by North Korea, and what the government describes as "changing global security situations".

Among other threats, that has been seen as a reference to neighbouring China's test last year of an anti-satellite weapon.

In 2007 Japan announced it had completed its first generation network of global spy satellites; a system it plans to upgrade in the coming years to provide increasingly detailed images of what its neighbours are up to.

More recently, in May this year, Japan's parliament voted to back a change in the law ending a 40-year self-imposed ban on the military use of space.

While the change still does not allow the deployment of weapons in space, peace activists condemned the move as an erosion of Japan's traditionally pacifist stance since the end of World War II.

India

With China making steady progress in its space programme, neighbouring Asian giant India is preparing to make its own giant leap spaceward with the launch before the end of the year of its first unmanned lunar probe, Chandrayaan 1.

India's space programme has a reputation for reliable rocket launches at a low cost [EPA]

India's space programme began more than four decades ago, launched its first satellite in 1980 and has developed a reputation for reliable rocket launches at a low cost.

Its homegrown PSLV (Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle) series of rockets have recently launched satellites for Argentina, Israel and Italy among others, as well as a series of Indian-built observational and mapping satellites.

Earlier this year it achieved a space record by launching 10 satellites from just one rocket – a feat that requires an extremely high degree of engineering precision.

When it launches, the Chandrayaan 1 probe is expected to map the entire lunar surface in unprecedented detail.

Operating on a budget said to be less than five per cent that of Nasa in the US, India's equivalent space agency, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), says its primary objective is to develop space applications of benefit to life back on Earth, particularly in the developing world.

Until a few years ago its focus was on weather and communications satellites.

But recently it has unveiled ambitious plans for unmanned missions to Mars and beyond; and to eventually conduct manned space launches, including proposals for a manned lunar mission as early as 2020.

There have also been calls from senior members of the Indian armed forces for the country to develop military applications in space.

In June the head of the Indian army, General Deepak Kapoor, called for India to step up the use of space for defence purposes.

He cited the threat posed by China's space programme which he said was "expanding at an exponentially rapid pace, both in its offensive and military content".

South Korea

A relative late-comer compared to China, Japan and India, South Korea's space ambitions are expected to take a major step forward with the imminent completion of its first space centre, due either later this year or early in 2009.

South Korean astronaut Yi So-yeon flew into space on board a Russian craft this year [EPA]

Almost half a billion dollars has been pumped into the launch facility on the southern island of Naro, with the government aiming to develop what it says will be Asia's most advanced spaceport.

It says it wants South Korea to become a leader in space technology and is targeting a 10 per cent share of the international space launch market.

To boost domestic interest in space in 2007 South Korea held a TV reality show contest to select the country's first astronaut, who flew into space earlier this year on board a Russian Soyuz space craft for a short visit to the international space station.

South Korea had initially hoped for US assistance on its space programme, but concern in Washington over the potential military spin-offs and the consequences for regional stability led to those requests being turned down.

With rockets for launching satellites not that different from rockets for launching warheads, US officials believed the programme could help fuel an arms race with South Korea's neighbours.

So instead South Korea turned to Moscow for the necessary technological help, signing an agreement on space-technology co-operation in 2004.

The result is the KSLV-1 (Korea Satellite Launch Vehicle) -  rocket which officials hope will make South Korea only the ninth country in the world capable of independent space launches.

Scientists are already working on the blueprints for the much larger KSLV-2, a rocket they say will be built using exclusively South Korean technology.

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