China is among several emerging Asian space powers [EPA]

But in recent years a new space race has developed among the emerging powers of Asia.

China's most recent manned space mission, which included its first ever spacewalk, marked the latest 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 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 powers look to develop military applications in space, both for intelligence gathering and potential space-based weapons.

As only the third nation after the US and Russia capable of launching humans independently into space, China is Asia's most high profile space power.

China has sucessfully launched three manned missions into orbit [Reuters]

China's space programme began in the early 1960s when, in the wake of the first Soviet and American space launches, Chinese leader Mao Zedong lamented that China could not even launch a potato into space.

In 1970 China launched its first satellite atop a modified intercontinental missile. The satellite orbited for almost a month, transmitting the revolutionary anthem "The East is Red" back to Earth.

In subsequent years the Long March series of rockets have developed a reputation for reliability and China has launched satellites for several other nations as it builds up its presence in the commercial launch business.

China has three operational space launch centres and is building a fourth on the southern tropical island of Hainan.

For China's leaders the country's space programme carries with it a strong political dimension, as a demonstration of the country's prowess and a focus for national pride.

Its future ambitions though remain cloaked in secrecy and the space programme's close ties to the Chinese military have many other nations worried.

In 2007 China destroyed one of its own obsolete weather satellites using a ground launched missile.

Although China has repeatedly denied its space programme has any offensive intentions, the exercise was widely interpreted as a demonstration of the country's anti-satellite capabilities.

Several nations including Japan and the US condemned the test, warning it could trigger an arms race in outer space.  

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]

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.

With China making steady progress in its space programme, neighbouring Asian giant India has just made its own giant leap spaceward with the launch of its first unmanned lunar probe, Chandrayaan 1.

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

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 reaches orbit around the moon, 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.

That has drawn criticism from some quarters who say that India has many more pressing needs back home on which it should be focusing resources.

Countering that 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".

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 launch centre, due to open 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]

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.