China on Thursday launched its second space lab, state media said, as the country works toward setting up its own crewed space station by 2022.
Tiangong-2 blasted off just after 10pm “in a cloud of smoke” from the Gobi, the official Xinhua news agency reported.
State broadcaster China Central Television showed images of the Long March 2F rocket’s engines igniting in tandem before slowly lifting into the air and exiting the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, leaving a long trail of flames in its wake.
The 8.6-tonne Tiangong-2 — or Heavenly Palace 2 — is initially to orbit at an altitude of about 380km, Xinhua cited Wu Ping (武平), deputy director of the China National Space Administration’s manned space engineering office, as saying.
It is then to move slightly higher to allow the Shenzhou-11 mission to transport two astronauts to the facility, where they are to stay for 30 days.
Once inside Tiangong-2, the two astronauts are to carry out research projects related to in-orbit equipment repairs, aerospace medicine, space physics and biology, atomic space clocks and solar storm research.
Zhou Jianping (周建平), chief engineer of China’s manned space program, said Tiangong-2 also aimed to verify technology involved in the construction of the space station.
“It has the basic technological capacity of a space station,” Zhou said.
“Once the space lab mission comes to an end, China will start building our own space station,” he said, adding this could start in as early as next year.
In April next year, China’s first space cargo ship, Tianzhou-1, is to be sent to the space lab, providing fuel and other supplies.
China is pouring billions into its space program and working to catch up with the US and Europe.
China’s first space lab, Tiangong-1, was launched in September 2011 and ended transmissions in March this year. It is expected to fall back to Earth in the second half of next year.
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