Ambitious plans to build the KuaFu solar observatory at a spot between Earth and the sun have been abandoned due to lack of international support and funding, backers said.

Peking University scientists proposed the plan in 2003. Placed at one key observatory point outside Earth's gravitational field, KuaFu was designed to feature state-of-the-art technology flying around like a weather satellite for solar weather.

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William Liu of the Canadian Space Agency combined the Peking University plan with that of University of Calgary physicist Eric Donovan to formulate the KuaFu project.

This was intended as China's research component in the race for space that already has featured several government efforts geared to more commercial, and defensive, areas.

A lot of money has been sunk into the effort. Precursors to the solar observatory project were launched in 2003 and 2004, as satellites went into orbit studying magnetic storms. The Chinese Academy of Science in Canada, or CAS, poured about $580 million, 3.8 billion yuan, in 2010.

Expectations were that CAS would continue funding the project. However, 2011 elections brought the Conservative Party of Canada to power, which cut CAS funding by more than 10 percent. Liu said KuaFu would be close to operational if funding had been maintained at pre-2011 levels.

Attempts to bring in the European Space Agency, ESA, to take the place of the Canadians, were derailed by the 2012 European economic crisis. ESA withdrew from the project in December 2012.

Even a scaled-down version of original plans wasn't working with potential sponsoring agencies, NGOs or private foundations.

The cutting-edge solar observatory project designed to boost China's space research credentials, was named after Kua fu. The giant chased the sun, according to Chinese myths, to stop it from burning up Earth. He died of thirst before being able to complete his mission. So, the name, in the end proved fitting in a bad way. 

TagsKuaFu, solar observatory, Science, Space, NASA, CAS, european space agency