China launched next stage of space station plan

China has launched an unmanned spaceship in the latest step towards creating its own manned space station by 2020. The Shenzhou VIII is scheduled to dock with another craft 343km above the earth’s surface later this week, as China practises a key technique first used by the US and Russia more than 40 years ago.

The Shenzhou VIII was launched on a Long March carrier rocket at 6am on Today and is scheduled to link up with Tiangong I, the space module which was sent up in late September and which will conduct the most important work in preparation for the space station, the China Manned Space Engineering Office said.

Tuesday’s launch is a crucial step in Beijing’s ambitious plan to complete its permanent space station by 2020, just as the International Space Station is scheduled to retire, and leave it as the only nation with such a permanent presence in space.

The spacecraft is carrying a German-built incubator loaded with plant, bacteria and human cell samples for biological and medical tests during the mission.

While China’s space programmes have close ties with those of Russia and the country has exchanges with European counterparts, this marks the first time Beijing has co-operated with another nation in the use of a Shenzhou spaceship.

Attempts to foster exchanges with the US, one of the two leading nations in spaceflight, have been hampered by caution as relations between the two nations still suffer from distrust over possible military implications.

A joint pledge by Barack Obama, US president, and his Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao to expand space co-operation has yet to be translated into solid progress.

Xinhua, the official news agency, called international co-operation in space exploration “difficult”, and pointed out that while China had received delegations from NASA and the US Space Foundation at its satellite launch centre in Jiuquan in western China, a Beijing request to visit the Kennedy Space centre had been denied.

Xinhua said German and other European officials and scientists had witnessed the Shenzhou VIII launch at the Jiuquan centre.

The spaceship is scheduled to approach Tiangong I gradually, which is circling 343km above earth, and then dock with it within two days of its launch.

Different from the first such attempts by the US and Russia, which were steered by astronauts on board, China is going for a fully automated exercise using the on-board laser and satellite systems of the Shenzhou and Tiangong craft to navigate from ground control.

Two such dockings will be conducted before the Shenzhou VIII capsule returns to earth in mid-November. More advanced docking exercises with the Tiangong I are planned next year, one of which will be manned, CMSEO said.