![\"tiangong-11\"](\"http:\/\/blogs.discovermagazine.com\/80beats\/files\/2010\/03\/tiangong-11.jpg\" "\\"tiangong-11\\"")
China will soon have an outpost in space. The government has announced that its first unmanned space module, the Tiangong-1 (or “The Heavenly Palace”), will be launched next year.<\/p>\nChina will soon have an outpost in space. The government has announced that its first unmanned space module, the Tiangong-1 (or “The Heavenly Palace”), will be launched next year.<\/p>\n
The module will serve as a docking station for other spacecraft before being transformed into a permanent taikonaut residence and space lab within two years of the launch<\/span> [Nature<\/a><\/em> blog<\/a>]<\/span>. <\/span> It was originally due to launch this year, but now will see flight only late in 2011, due to technical reasons, Chinese officials said.<\/span><\/span> The Tiangong-1 is expected to be 30 feet long and capable of housing three taikonauts; future missions will add other modules to construct a larger Chinese space station.<\/p>\n <\/span>The Tiangong-1 design, unveiled in a nationally televised broadcast on last year’s Chinese New Year, includes a large module with docking system making up the forward half of the vehicle and a service module section with solar arrays and propellant tanks making up the aft [SPACE.com<\/a><\/em>].<\/span> <\/span><\/span>The Tiangong-1 is expected to dock the unmanned Shenzhou 8 spacecraft first to test the robotic docking systems before hosting the manned Shenzhou 9 and 10 spacecraft, which are both expected to carry two or three taikonauts into space.<\/p>\n China’s other space plans include <\/span><\/span>launching a second lunar probe in October in preparation for an unmanned moon landing by the end of 2012. A possible manned lunar mission has also been proposed \u2014 with a target date of 2017 \u2014 putting China in the forefront of a tightening Asian space race involving India, Japan and South Korea [Associated Press<\/a>].<\/span><\/p>\n China has insisted that its space programs are for peaceful purposes only. However, <\/span>the head of the Chinese Air Force, Gen. Xu Qiliang, appeared to have gone off-message when he said in November that international \u201cmilitary competition has shifted towards space\u201d [The New York Times<\/a><\/em>]<\/span>.<\/p>\n Related Content: Image: CNSA<\/em><\/p>\n China will soon have an outpost in space. The government has announced that its first unmanned space module, the Tiangong-1 (or “The Heavenly Palace”), will be launched next year. The module will serve as a docking station for other spacecraft before being transformed into a permanent taikonaut residence and space lab within two years of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":641,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-395037","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/395037","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/641"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=395037"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/395037\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=395037"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=395037"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=395037"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nDISCOVER: #13: China Takes Its First Space Walk<\/a>
\nDISCOVER: China’s Long March to Space<\/a>
\nDISCOVER: One Giant Step for a Small, Crowded Country<\/a>
\n80beats: <\/strong>A Smashing Finale: China\u2019s Lunar Probe Crashes Into the Moon<\/a>
\n80beats: After a Successful Spacewalk, Chinese Astronauts Return Home<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>
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