China's space program less costly: U.S. astrophysicist

HARBIN, June 17 (Xinhua) -- China's manned space program has achieved rapid development in a "less costly way," a U.S. astrophysicist said Sunday.

"China did a great job in successfully sending another three astronauts into space," George Smoot said while visiting the Harbin Institute of Technology (HIT) in northeast China's Heilongjiang Province.

Smoot, who also received the 2006 Nobel Prize in Physics for his research into the Big Bang, made the remarks while speaking to the press following a speech he delivered to HIT students and faculty.

In his speech "Mapping the Universe," Smoot laid out recent discoveries regarding how the universe was formed, detailing how he and his colleagues used the Cosmic Background Explorer Satellite to study the formation of the universe.

"Science is very international. Most of the recent cutting-edge technologies are international," Smoot said.

Smoot also received the title of "Honorary HIT Professor" during his visit.

Core technologies developed by HIT have been used to build China's Shenzhou family of spacecraft.