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Launch date set for historic space mission
By Lydia Chen |
September 26, 2011, Monday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
CHINA is expected to launch its unmanned space module, Tiangong 1, on Thursday night.
The launch had been due tomorrow but weather conditions led to a change of plans, satellite launch center officials said yesterday.
Tiangong 1, or "Heavenly Palace," will now probably blast off between 9:20pm and 9:30pm on Thursday, sources at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the northwestern Gansu Province told yesterday's Yang Cheng Evening News.
A successful launch will pave the way for the building of China's first space station, helping the country join a club previously dominated by the United States and Russia.
A cold front is forecast to hit Gansu over the next few days and engineers feared that could affect tomorrow's planned launch in the Gobi Desert because of a change in wind speeds, the newspaper quoted sources at the launch center as saying.
The small, unmanned space lab and the Long March rocket that will heave it skyward are already on the launch pad at the center.
The rocket that will take the 8.5-ton Tiangong 1 into space will be fuelled a day ahead of the takeoff, the sources said.
The launch of Tiangong 1 had already been postponed from August 26, pending an investigation into a recent failed orbiter launch that used a similar carrier rocket.
The biggest test for the latest space project will come weeks after the launch of Tiangong 1, when the craft attempts to join up with an unmanned Shenzhou 8 spacecraft that China plans to launch soon.
"The main task of the Tiangong 1 flight is to experiment in rendezvous and docking between spacecraft," said a spokesman for the Tiangong project.
He said this would "accumulate experience for developing a space station."
The rocket that is to carry the Shenzhou 8 spacecraft was transported to Jiuquan on Saturday, meaning that preparation for its launch are in the final stages.
Shenzhou 8 may be launched as early as November.
The rocket which will blast the Shenzhou 8 into space will receive a series of tests over the next few weeks, yesterday's Shanghai Evening News said.
Space station
If the launch of Shenzhou 8 goes as expected, China is to launch a Shenzhou 9 and 10 next year to take Chinese astronauts to the space lab, a milestone in China's space development that includes the building of a space station by 2020.
China also plans an unmanned moon landing and deployment of a moon rover next year, and the retrieval of lunar soil and stone samples around 2017.
The country may also send a man to the moon after 2020, previous reports have said.
Russia, the United States and European countries are currently joint operators of the International Space Station.
The US said it will not be testing a new rocket to take people into space until 2017 while Russia has also removed manned missions as a priority for its space program.
The launch had been due tomorrow but weather conditions led to a change of plans, satellite launch center officials said yesterday.
Tiangong 1, or "Heavenly Palace," will now probably blast off between 9:20pm and 9:30pm on Thursday, sources at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the northwestern Gansu Province told yesterday's Yang Cheng Evening News.
A successful launch will pave the way for the building of China's first space station, helping the country join a club previously dominated by the United States and Russia.
A cold front is forecast to hit Gansu over the next few days and engineers feared that could affect tomorrow's planned launch in the Gobi Desert because of a change in wind speeds, the newspaper quoted sources at the launch center as saying.
The small, unmanned space lab and the Long March rocket that will heave it skyward are already on the launch pad at the center.
The rocket that will take the 8.5-ton Tiangong 1 into space will be fuelled a day ahead of the takeoff, the sources said.
The launch of Tiangong 1 had already been postponed from August 26, pending an investigation into a recent failed orbiter launch that used a similar carrier rocket.
The biggest test for the latest space project will come weeks after the launch of Tiangong 1, when the craft attempts to join up with an unmanned Shenzhou 8 spacecraft that China plans to launch soon.
"The main task of the Tiangong 1 flight is to experiment in rendezvous and docking between spacecraft," said a spokesman for the Tiangong project.
He said this would "accumulate experience for developing a space station."
The rocket that is to carry the Shenzhou 8 spacecraft was transported to Jiuquan on Saturday, meaning that preparation for its launch are in the final stages.
Shenzhou 8 may be launched as early as November.
The rocket which will blast the Shenzhou 8 into space will receive a series of tests over the next few weeks, yesterday's Shanghai Evening News said.
Space station
If the launch of Shenzhou 8 goes as expected, China is to launch a Shenzhou 9 and 10 next year to take Chinese astronauts to the space lab, a milestone in China's space development that includes the building of a space station by 2020.
China also plans an unmanned moon landing and deployment of a moon rover next year, and the retrieval of lunar soil and stone samples around 2017.
The country may also send a man to the moon after 2020, previous reports have said.
Russia, the United States and European countries are currently joint operators of the International Space Station.
The US said it will not be testing a new rocket to take people into space until 2017 while Russia has also removed manned missions as a priority for its space program.
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