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Special Report  

Tiangong-1: The Prototype of China’s First Space Lab

By staff reporter JIAO FENG

 

 Tiangong-1, China’s first space lab module, blasts off at 21:16 on September 29, 2011. China Foto Press

AT 21:16 Beijing time on September 29, 2011 Tiangong-1 blasted off aboard the Long March II-F/T1 carrier rocket, the 147th flight of the Long March series. As China’s first space laboratory module, the launch of Tiangong-1 marks the start of China’s Space Station Era.

At 21:39 the commander-in-chief of China’s manned space program Chang Wanquan announced: “The launch of Tiangong-1 spacecraft has achieved complete success” as the laboratory entered orbit.

By the end of 2011, Shenzhou-8 spacecraft will be sent up from the same launch pad and dock with Tiangong-1, making China the third country in the world to master rendezvous and docking technology, and it will be a major step forward towards the completion of China’s future manned space laboratory station.

“Tiangong” means heavenly palace in Chinese and was used to refer to the vast and endless unknown universe that was the home of immortals, where the Monkey King wreaked havoc in the well-known classic Journey to the West. Naming China’s first space lab module “Tiangong” evokes the Chinese people’s centuries-old dreams about space travel.

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VOL.59 NO.12 December 2010 Advertise on Site Contact Us