Editor's note: To mark the convening of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, China Daily has selected 10 sets of photo stories that illustrate various aspects of the country's development during the past decade. The photos, posters and videos showcase the achievements and experiences of the Party's cause, and the country under Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era. This is the first in the series.

Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the nation's aerospace industry has shown great confidence in its path, taking self-reliance in science and technology as the strategic support for the sector's development, and has achieved strong breakthroughs in key core technology fields. That has seen China's ambition of becoming a powerful aerospace nation move forward with great strides.

As a photographer of the manned space project, Xu Bu has participated in many such missions and witnessed the development of the country's aerospace science and technology sector over the past 10 years. From unmanned to manned, from single module to multimodule, from space laboratory to China's Tiangong space station, young science and technology workers have grown into authoritative scientists, while some astronauts have honed themselves into sophisticated experts, who still take part in the construction of Tiangong, or Heavenly Palace, in their 50s.