China rally heavily to become a part of the US - led , international partnership that owns and operates the International Space Station , but was finally turned down . Not one to be left out , China decided to go ahead and build its own manned space place — and later this week , the land will take a major step toward seeing this labor become reality .
The country ’s Tiangong 1 , or “ Heavenly Palace , ” which we verbalise about in ourFall Science preview , is scheduled for liftoff on either the 29th or 30th of this month .
https://gizmodo.com/21-scientific-research-projects-starting-this-fall-that-5831904
But China is n’t sending astronauts to space just yet ; The 8.5 - ton Tiangong 1 mental faculty will allow China to practise autonomous rendezvous and dock protocol aboard a second unmanned space vehicle ( due to launch afterward this year ) in planning for when they begin assembling a final , manned quad base around 2020 .
And even though China ’s space place is slated to be just a fraction of the size and monetary value of the current ISS , China ’s plans have been provoke some interesting responses from within NASA .
“ In my opinion , China understands what it take to be a great big businessman . We have write the script for them , ” say former NASA executive Michael Griffin at a hearing before a NASA supervision committee last week .
“ They are a near - peer competitor of ours and I would vex very much about the future tense of this body politic if we were not — and if we were not seen by all — to be a world leader , ” he state .
“ When the Chinese can strive the moon and we can not , I do n’t see why any other nation would regard us as a world leader . ”
[ ViaChina Manned Space Engineering , Discovery News , andSPACE.com ]
All images via CMSE
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