China Plans to Build Space Station

The Chinese Manned Space Engineering Office has announced that China plans to builds its own space station by 2020.

The space station would be relatively small, weighing only about 60 tons, and be made up of three modules. The central, core module would have a launch weight of around 60 tons and a length of 19.8 yards (18.1 meters). The other two modules, which would serve as laboratories, would be 15.7 yards (14.4 meters) long.

All three modules would have a maximum diameter of 4.6 meters (4.2 yards).

Three astronauts would live at the station where they would work on experiments involving microgravity, radiation, astronomy and biology.

The space station, has temporarily been given the name Tiangong, which means "heavenly palace." However, the public has been asked to provide the station with a permanent name.

China expects to launch the first module, Tiangong-1, during the last half of 2011, so that its rendezvous and docking technologies can be tested.

Tiangong-1 is scheduled to link up with China's Shenzhou 9 and Shenzhou 10 missions, both of which will carry astronauts, in 2012.

China also has plans for lunar expeditions, with goals to sends a robot to the Moon by 2013, to retrieve lunar samples by 2017, to land a human being on the Moon by 2025 and, eventually, to build a permanent outpost there.