Tiangong 1 about to launch

According to China Manned Space Engineering (CMSE), the Tiangong 1 target spacecraft, which will carry out China's first space rendezvous and docking task, has been successfully gone through a series of evaluation test and was transmitted to Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center on June 29 to be given a final check before launching.

Since the Shenzhou 7 successfully accomplished a series of extra-vehicular activities on Sept. 9, 2008, China has proceeded to develop space rendezvous and docking related techniques. After two years of strenuous efforts by the scientists, Tiangong 1 target spacecraft has been successfully assembled and passed through failure detection.

As scheduled, China will launch the Tiangong 1 target spacecraft and the Shenzhou 8 in the third and fourth quarters of 2011, respectively, to realize China's first space rendezvous and docking.

By People's Daily Online

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