The Long March II-F rocket carrying China's first space station module Tiangong-1
Πηγή: The Telegraph
By Malcolm Moore
Sep. 28 2011
China will take the first step to having its own space station tomorrow, launching the Tiangong-1, or "Heavenly Palace" space laboratory.
The unmanned, 8.5 ton Tiangong-1 will help to test the technologies that China plans to use in its space station, which is scheduled for completion by 2020. It will also be used as a docking target for the unmanned Shenzhou 8 space craft which is expected to launch by the end of this year. If that mission succeeds, Chinese astronauts could fly to Tiangong-1 next year, dock, and live aboard it.
If China can demonstrate it has a functioning docking system, it could also begin to dock with the International Space Station. China has held up its ambitious space programme as a symbol of its growing technological expertise.
The module's launch arrives just before China's National Day celebrations on October 1.
The mission has been delayed by a few weeks because of "over 170 technical modifications" that had to be made at the launch site in the Gobi desert, according to the director of the site. As China steps up its space programme, in competition with India and Japan, the United States and Russia have both scaled back their ambition.
The US says it will not test a new space rocket to carry out manned missions until 2017 and Russia has said manned mission are no longer a priority.
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