An international center integrating astronaut health management, space technology research and aerospace science education will be established in China's Hainan Free Trade Port in 2026, according to an announcement at the 2025 International Symposium on the Peaceful Use of Space Technology-Health (IPSPACE 2025).
IPSpace 2025, which opened on Tuesday in Hainan Province, was organized by the International Peace Alliance under the theme "One Space, One Shared Home" to discuss ways to promote economic development through the peaceful use of space technologies.
The proposed international center will include a headquarters in Sanya City, an aerospace education base, and health management centers in Sanya, Qionghai, and Danzhou. The headquarters will house an international astronaut exchange center and an astronaut archive. The education base will be equipped with teaching facilities such as aerospace simulation laboratories, while the rehabilitation center will provide support facilities for astronauts from around the world.
"Hainan has been chosen as the location for the international astronaut center, because it is a symbol of China's opening up to the outside world. Through Hainan's opening up, China's sci-tech achievements and economy are building bridges to the world, and the symbol of astronauts can be used to promote Hainan to the world," said Wang Tianyi, executive chairman of the International Peace Alliance (Space).
The astronaut center will also organize "astronaut vacation programs," inviting astronauts from around the world to Hainan annually for activities such as science education live streams and technical consultations. Future plans include expanding international cooperation in areas such as space tourism and commercial spaceflight. The international astronaut center is scheduled to begin operations in 2026.
"I'm most excited about two aspects, which is the scientific research and technology development, working together for the benefit of that," said Dominic Antonelli, a former astronaut with U.S. space agency NASA.
"To bring astronauts to talk to your students, to talk to the people that you need to support the human spaceflight program. So we hope to do educational programming, science popularization," said Andy Turnage, executive director of the Association of Space Explorers.
International astronaut center to be established in Hainan
A dedicated training base in southwest China's Sichuan Province is readying embodied artificial intelligence (AI) robots for their entry into multiple sectors, teaching them the essential skills they will need to perform numerous application scenarios in fields such as manufacturing, healthcare, urban management and even in emergency response situations.
Based in the city of Mianyang, the Sichuan Embodied Intelligence Robot Training Base has been accelerating robotic learning, algorithmic improvements and capability upgrades to take these robots to the next stage of their development, with the center operating as a comprehensive platform integrating research and development, validation testing, standard-setting and commercialization.
The advanced training ground is expected to address critical bottlenecks facing embodied AI development globally, including a scarcity of real-world training scenarios, insufficient high-quality data, and inadequate testing capabilities in extreme environments.
"The training programs cover a dozen scenarios, like industrial manufacturing, home services, and shopping assistance. The approach here is like an adult teaching a child, providing hands-on instruction to help them acquire more skills," said Zhang Chenchen, the base's technical director.
The novelty element of the robot training base has seen it attract flocks of visitors and professionals from various sectors who are keen to get an up-close look at these AI-powered robots in action and explore their full potential.
"I come from [the nearby city of] Deyang and work in the flexible packaging industry. Robots are very suitable for our current factory production scenarios, such as code-scanning and labeling, material sorting, and material handling," said one interested visitor.
According to staff, the training base has received more than 200 visiting groups during its trial operation over the last two months, with a large number of orders being signed. After the corresponding robots are sufficiently trained, they will be mass-produced and shipped on to the companies.
"This year, numerous policies supporting AI development have been launched at both the national and local levels, which has given us great confidence. Currently, some robots, including those for shopping assistance, and those used in industrial settings, are undergoing preliminary preparations for deployment. We are also accelerating robot training, like getting them into shopping malls, communities, and factories, so that AI technology can empower various industries more quickly," said Zhu Yanchen, the base's brand manager.
Thanks to rapid advancements in technologies such as AI and large language models, China's robotics industry is undergoing a rapid transformation from laboratory research to mass production and applications.
The industry is expected to see a major market boom in the coming years. According to the Chinese Institute of Electronics, China's humanoid robot market is projected to reach 870 billion yuan (approx. 122 billion U.S. dollars) by 2030.
Robot training ground in Sichuan readies robots to enter multiple industries
