Follow along with the video below to see how to install our site as a web app on your home screen.
Note: This feature may not be available in some browsers.
China on Thursday launched space lab Tiangong-2 into space, paving the way for a permanent space station the country plans to build around 2022.
In a cloud of brown smoke, Tiangong-2 roared into the air underneath a mid-autumn full moon from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center on the back of a Long March-2F rocket, trailing a vast volume of flame.
Once in space, the 8.6-tonne Tiangong-2 will maneuver itself into an orbit about 380 kilometers above Earth for initial on-orbit tests, Wu Ping, deputy director of China's manned space engineering office, said on Wednesday.
The space lab will then transfer to a slightly higher orbit at about 393 kilometers above Earth, a height at which the future Chinese space station will be operating, before the Shenzhou-11 manned spaceship ferries two male astronauts into space to dock with the lab. The two astronauts will work in the lab for 30 days, before reentering Earth's atmosphere.
In April 2017, China's first cargo ship Tianzhou-1, which literally means "heavenly vessel," will also be sent into orbit to dock with the space lab and provide it with fuel and other supplies.
Wu said experts will verify and evaluate key technologies involved in on-orbit propellant resupply and equipment repairing, as well as those related to astronauts' long-term stay in space in the mission process.
They will also use the lab, which is designed to operate for at least two years, to conduct space
science experiments on a relatively large scale compared with China's previous efforts.
China's manned space program has now entered a "new phase of application and development," Wu said.
Awesome... I like the way Chinese execute their space projects...Respect.The Tiangong-2 space launch is big news all over the world.
One of our local Aussie papers reported the following:-
--------
Tiangong 2: China launches second space station
SEPTEMBER 16, 20164:20AM
AP and staff writers | News Corp Australia Network
CHINA has launched its second space station in a sign of the growing sophistication of its military-backed program that intends to send a mission to Mars in the coming years.
The Tiangong 2 was carried into space on Thursday night atop a Long March 7 rocket from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre on the edge of the Gobi Desert in northern China.
Plans call for the launch next month of the Shenzhou 11 spaceship with two astronauts to dock with the station and remain on board for a month.
The station, whose name means “Heavenly Palace,” is considered a stepping stone to a mission to Mars by the end of the decade.
View attachment 334833
China's Tiangong 2 space lab is launched on a Long March 2F rocket from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in the Gobi Desert. Picture: AFPSource:AFP
The Tiangong 2 module will be used for “testing systems and processes for midterm space stays and refuelling,” and will house experiments in medicine and various space-related technologies. China’s first space station, Tiangong 1, was launched in September 2011 and officially went out of service earlier this year after having docked with three visiting spacecraft.
China conducted its first crewed space mission in 2003, becoming only the third country after Russia and the US to do so, and has since staged a space walk and landed its Yutu rover on the moon.
View attachment 334834
The spacecraft of Shenzhou X is seen on top of the Long March 2F launch vehicle on June 3, 2013. Picture: ChinaFotoPress/Getty ImagesSource:Supplied
Administrators suggest a manned landing on the moon may also be in the program’s future.
China was prevented from participating in the International Space Station, mainly due to US concerns over the security risks of involving the increasingly assertive Chinese military in the multinational effort.
A source of enormous national pride, China’s space program plans a total of 20 missions this year at a time when the US and other countries’ programs are seeking new roles.
China is also developing the Long March 5 heavier-lift rocket needed to launch other components of the Tiangong 2 and other massive payloads.
China plans to land a rover on Mars by 2020, attempting to recreate the success of the US Viking 1 mission that landed a rover on the planet four decades ago.
View attachment 334835
The Shenzhou 8 craft docks with the Tiangong 1 module on November 3, 2011. Picture: AP Photo/CCTV via APTN Source:AP