China spacecraft launched on key mission
Which is seen as a symbol of its global stature:
CHINA: China said it successfully launched an unmanned spacecraft on
Tuesday to carry out a key docking mission, taking its next step towards
the goal of building its first space station by 2020.
The Shenzhou VIII blasted off from the Gobi desert in China’s
northwest at 5:58 am (2158 GMT) before separating from its carrier
rocket about 200 kilometres (120 miles) above the Earth, the state
Xinhua news agency said.
It is due to join with the Tiangong-1 or “Heavenly Palace”
experimental module in two days, in what would be the country’s first
space docking,a key step in China’s ambitious space programme.
The ability to dock successfully is crucial to the success of China’s
ambitions to build a space station where astronauts can live for several
months, as they do on NASA’s International Space Station.
The technology is hard to master because the two vessels, placed in
the same orbit and revolving around Earth at some 28,000 kilometres per
hour, must come together progressively to avoid destroying each other.
China sees its space programme as a symbol of its global stature,
growing technical expertise, and the Communist Party’s success in
turning around the fortunes of the once poverty-stricken nation.
It began its manned spaceflight programme in 1990 after buying
Russian technology and in 2003 became the third country to send humans
into space, after the former Soviet Union and the United States.
The launch of Tiangong-1 on September 29, ahead of China’s National
Day on October 1, was attended by Premier Wen Jiabao, while President Hu
Jintao watched from a space flight control centre in Beijing.
But Beijing is playing catch-up in the space arena. The planned space
docking will only emulate what the Americans and Russians achieved in
the 1960s..The Global Times newspaper said the benefits of China’s
investment in space technology were not yet clear, but that the country
had “no choice” other than to pursue its exploration programme. AFP
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