When China was deny membership in the transnational partnership that manoeuver the International Space Station , the country decided to progress a man space place of its own . Now , China is one footprint closer to achieving its finish : belatedly last night , the China National Space Administration successfully launch its unmanned Shenzhou 8 spacecraft into low - earth orbit .
Over the next couple of 24-hour interval , Shenzhou will move into position before attempting to tail with Tiangong-1 , a epitome module of China ’s planned space station , which was successfully placed in Earth ’s orbit just over a calendar month ago .
https://gizmodo.com/china-will-launch-a-prototype-of-its-space-station-late-5843988
If China succeed in docking the Shenzhou space abridgement with Tiangong-1 , they will become just the fourth nation in history ( joining the U.S. , Russia and Japan ) to demonstrate orbital rendezvous and docking technologies .
“ agree to our current design , there will be about four adjustments to the space vehicle ’s orbit to contribute Shenzhou 8 to the target , ” said Zhang Bonan , head graphic designer of Tiangong-1 .
“ When the distance between the two vehicles is less than 50 kilometers , sensors and communication equipment attach to the cunning will be able to enchant the target . ” ( The artist ’s depiction featured below shows Shenzhou 8 , at odd , in the outgrowth of tying up with Tiangong-1 . )
China ’s foray into quad are significant for a issue of reason , chief among them being the self-governing nature of the undertaking . With few elision , the technologies used in China ’s program have been conceptualized , prototyped , and produced domestically .
“ We can never depend on other countries to trade their ripe engineering to us , so we have to rely on our own , ” say Zhou Jianping , chief designer of China ’s man space program .
“ Since we have never carry a like examination before and the system is so complicated , we have many unknowns … It is extremely bad . ”
So far , however , things have been hold out jolly swimmingly . If next exam carry on to go according to plan , China ’s 100 - net ton , manned infinite post will be completed and circling the Earth by 2020 — around the same clip the ISS is schedule to be retired and off from orbital cavity .
[ ViaBBC+TPM+Spaceflight Now ]
Top image vianews.bandao.cn
Docking imagevia
ChinaScienceSpace
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