China’s Own Space Station Coming Up

The Chinese government is hoping to set up its own space station in orbit around the planet by 2022. An experimental module is already in orbit as per the state media. China has been revamping its space program in recent years to prove itself a major space power.

Last year three astronauts spent 15 days in orbit on the Tiangong 1 (Heavenly Palace). The Tiangong 1 is China’s experimental space laboratory. This is much smaller than the International Space Station.  Now the follow up to this will be with Tiangong 2 which is likely to be launched in 2016 and the core of the space station they intend to build will be launched in 2018.

Yang Liwei, the first Chinese man in space, and currently deputy head of China’s Manned Space agency said that the space station would be completed by 2022. So far individual nations have shared the International Space Station for space exploration and scientific experimentation as the cost of setting up a new station was not justified.

The Chinese seem keen to rush into space with their own infrastructure in place. It will be interesting to see how they use the experiences of the first space station and their own launched to improve upon the design for a space station. A science project worth watching out for.