Beijing, September 29: China launched an experimental module to lay the groundwork for a future space station on Thursday, underscoring its ambitions to become a major space power.
The box car-sized Tiangong-1 module was shot into space from the Jiuquan launch centre on the edge of the Gobi Desert aboard a Long March II-F rocket.
After moving it into orbit, China plans to launch an unmanned Shenzhou 8 spacecraft to practice docking maneuvers with the module, possibly within the next few weeks. Two more missions, at least one of them manned, are to meet up with it next year for further practice, with astronauts staying for up to one month.
The 8.5-ton module, whose name translates as “Heavenly Palace-1,” is to stay aloft for two years, after which two other experimental modules are to be launched for additional tests before the actual station is launched in three sections between 2020 and 2022.
“This is a significant test. We’ve never done such a thing before,” Lu Jinrong, the launch centre’s chief engineer, was quoted as saying by the official Xinhua News Agency.
The space station, which is yet to be formally named, is the most ambitious project in China’s exploration of space.