#space
Space
#space
Space
China's Tiangong-1 Space Lab Set for Maiden Launch
- Thursday, 29 September 2011
China is set to launch its first space laboratory, Tiangong-1, which will demonstrate technologies needed for building a fully fledged space station. The lab will be unmanned initially and will be launched on a Long March 2F rocket, going into a near-circular orbit around the Earth. Later, an unmanned Shenzhou vehicle will try to dock with Tiangong, testing key technologies such as life-support systems. China aims to build a 60-tonne space station by about 2020, which would be smaller than the international platform operated by US, Russia, Europe, Canada, and Japan.
