A series of achievements in China’s space program over the last 12 months have set the stage to start construction of the country’s first space station in 2019, a year later than previously scheduled, officials said Friday.
A Long March 7 rocket lifted off Thursday with Tianzhou 1, an unpiloted refueling freighter heading for China’s Tiangong 2 mini-space station to conduct several months of robotic demonstrations, practicing for the assembly and maintenance of a future permanently-staffed orbital research complex.
Chinese engineers rolled out a Long March 7 rocket to a seaside launch complex on Hainan Island in the South China Sea on Monday, aiming to fire a robotic refueling freighter into orbit as soon as Thursday to test technology for China’s future space station.
A flaming fragment of space junk from China’s newest satellite launcher blazed through Earth’s atmosphere over the Western United States late Wednesday.
A sub-scale landing craft for China’s next-generation crew capsule parachuted back to Earth on Sunday, one day after rocketing into orbit aboard the country’s new Long March 7 launcher.
The new kerosene-fueled Long March 7 rocket rocket, developed to become a workhorse for a planned Chinese space station and the country’s clandestine military space program, flew into orbit Saturday on its inaugural flight from a launch base on Hainan Island in the South China Sea.
A brand new Chinese launcher powered by kerosene-burning rocket engines could take off on its first flight as soon as Saturday, also debuting a new spaceport on Hainan Island in the South China Sea.
China plans to launch its first Long March 7 rocket, a new kerosene-fueled booster capable of carrying supplies to the country’s planned space station, by the end of June on a test flight that will reportedly loft an unpiloted prototype of a future crew capsule.
