China said it successfully launched an unmanned spacecraft yesterday to carry out a key docking mission, taking its next step towards the goal of building its first space station by 2020.
The Shenzhou 8 blasted off from the Gobi in China’s northwest at 5:58am before separating from its carrier rocket about 200km above the Earth, 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 program.
Photo: Reuters
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 28,000kph, must come together progressively to avoid destroying each other.
China sees its space program as a symbol of its global stature, growing technical expertise and the Chinese Communist Party’s success in turning around the fortunes of the once poverty-stricken nation.
It began its manned space flight program 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 US.
The launch of Tiangong-1 on Sept. 29 — ahead of China’s National Day on Oct. 1 — was attended by Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao (溫家寶), while Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) watched from a space flight control center in Beijing.
However, 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 program.
“As long as we are determined to rise in the world and pursue rejuvenation, we need to take risks. Otherwise China will be a nation with prosperity but subordinated to top powers,” it said in an editorial yesterday.
However, it called for a “well-balanced” approach to space exploration, saying the money spent might be more urgently needed elsewhere in China, where the World Bank says 150 million people are living on less than US$1.25 a day.
Xinhua said the docking would take place 343km above the surface of the Earth. The spacecraft will return to Earth after two docking operations.
If it is a success, China plans to launch another two spacecraft next year to conduct more docking experiments.
At least one will be manned and two female astronauts are among those being trained for the mission, according to Xinhua. If they are chosen, they will be the first women China has sent into space.
Yesterday’s launch was attended by Chinese Vice Premier Zhang Dejiang (張德江), as well as senior experts from the European Space Agency and the German Aerospace Center, Xinhua reported.
German and Chinese scientists will conduct joint life science and gravity experiments on the Shenzhou 8, it said.
The International Space Station began with the launch into orbit of the first station element, a Russian-built module, in 1998.
The first full-time crew arrived two years later.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in