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Science/Tech See other Science/Tech Articles Title: China launch to pave way for space station BEIJING - China will launch an unmanned module next week, paving the way for a planned space station, a spokesman for the space program said on Tuesday. Tiangong-1, or "Heavenly Palace 1", will blast off from Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in Gansu province between Sept 27 and 30, the spokesman said. The 8.5-ton module, and the Long March II-F rocket that will carry it skyward, were positioned onto the launch pad on Tuesday, signaling that the project has entered the final preparation stage. "Scientists will conduct final tests in the next few days before injecting propellants for the launch," Cui Jijun, director of the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, said. The program spokesman said that Tiangong-1 will serve as "a target spacecraft" for rendezvous and docking experiments. It will also work as "a platform to test long-term unmanned and short-term manned operations", he said. Technical and medical experiments will provide crucial data ahead of the building of the space station (scheduled for 2020). Three rendezvous and docking experiments will be conducted. An unmanned Shenzhou-VIII craft will be launched later this year to dock with Tiangong-1. In 2012, Shenzhou IX and Shenzhou X will blast off to complete at least one manned docking. Jiao Weixin, a space scientist at Peking University, said that rendezvous and docking - vital maneuvers for manned programs - are hard to master. "Rendezvous and docking are difficult because it is like asking two racing cars to keep a distance of 1 meter between them," he said. The mission requires two craft, traveling at speeds of 28,000 km/h, to enter the same orbit and connect with precision, he said. The China Manned Space Engineering Office rescheduled the launch of Tiangong-1 after the failed launch of an experimental orbiter last month. The spokesman said that the carrier rocket to blast off with Tiangong-1 atop has been modified. Only the United States and Russia have mastered rendezvous and docking technology, said Pang Zhihao, deputy editor-in-chief of the magazine Space International. Spacecraft developed by Europe and Japan have utilized US and Russian technology to dock with the International Space Station, he added. Comments: Hello I wonder if the people living in western China are excited about money spent on space research - remember, hungry people are angry people !!!!! KKBB You should have directed your bs comments to the Yanks. They've just discarded their shuttle program after 30 years of wasted trillions, and tens of human lives. Their reusable dead bird turned out to be a big floppy no-flight pink elephant. Now the Americans are copying our Chinese rocket design with their 'new' SLS sausage launchers. Plagiarism is the word I use to describe Obama's NASA money wasters. user060870 Despite being a fan of the idea of utilising space, the potential of zero gravity research and it's implications for the future of medicine, science, engineering and a host of other applications that may not even have been guessed at, it seems to me that China investing trillions in this, and other glory projects, is putting the cart before the horse. Sooner or later the people are going to realise, the smarter (or more astute) ones do now, that all of this money is coming out of the mouths of millions people who have more immediate concerns than how good China looks to other countries, hunger, housing, health, education and employment being just some of those problems that exist now and will have less resources assigned because of a political desire to project an image. The bleating of the local cheerleading squad is nothing more than the inability to see the forest for the trees. helen The Chinese people must never forget Mao's advice to be self-reliant. It was the United States who specifically barred China from participating in the International Space Station (ISS) project. Just as the US and its axis attempted to isolate, sanction and embargo China immediately after the Liberation. But these have never discouraged the Chinese people from going it alone. The New China under the CPC is advancing all directions and China and the Chinese people will never again kowtow to foreign powers! We will see the demise of US Global Tyranny in our lifetime, that's for sure!
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