BEIJING: China is due to take its first step towards building a space station on Thursday when it launches an experimental module ahead of the country’s National Day celebrations.
The Asian nation sees its ambitious space programme as a symbol of its global stature, growing technical expertise, and the Communist Party’s success in turning around the fortunes of the formerly poverty-stricken nation.s part of this, Tiangong-1 – which has a two-year lifespan in space – will receive the unmanned Shenzhou VIII spacecraft later this year in what would be the first Chinese docking in space.
If this succeeds, the module will then dock with two other spacecraft — Shenzhou IX and X – in 2012, both of which will have at least one astronaut on board.
The technology for docking in space is hard to master because the two vessels, placed in the same orbit and revolving around earth at some 28,000 km/h, must come together progressively to avoid destroying each other.For Tiangong-1, “over 170 technical modifications had to be made to the rocket launcher”, Cui Jijun, director of the Jiuquan launch centre in Gansu province, told the official Xinhua news agency.While China is making great strides with their manned space program, there are no current plans to include China in the ongoing International Space Station project. Despite several political and technological issues preventing China’s participation in the ISS, recent comments from officials at the China National Space Administration have indicated a willingness to allow other countries to visit the country’s space station once it is operational
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