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    China to Launch 3 Astronauts to Space Laboratory by August

    China's next space mission will launch three astronauts to a prototype space station module orbiting high above Earth, possibly in June, according to state media reports.

    The mission is slated to launch sometime between June and August atop a Long March 2F rocket, the Xinhua news agency reported Friday (Feb. 17).  The mission, which will be China's fourth manned spaceflight, will send a crew into orbit aboard the Shenzhou 9 spacecraft to rendezvous with the country's prototype space station module Tiangong 1.

    China launched the Tiangong 1 space lab into orbit in September 2011. An unmanned space docking test followed soon after, with the robotic Shenzhou 8 spacecraft successfully linking up with the orbital space lab in November.

    Unlike the Shenzhou 8 mission, the manned Shenzhou 9 flight will demonstrate a manual space docking, according to Xinhua. The three-person crew will then stay aboard to live, work and perform science experiments.

    China's manned spaceflight program has also stated plans to launch another mission, called Shenzhou 10, to Tiangong 1 this year. Chinese space officials have also hinted that China's first female astronaut may fly on one of the missions to Tiangong 1.

    The 8.5-metric-ton Tiangong 1 laboratory module is a miniature space station that is 11 feet (3.4 meters) wide and 34 feet (10.4 m) long. It uses large solar panels to generate power.

    China plans to build a larger, 60-ton space station by 2020 and fly a manned mission to the moon sometime after that.

    Since the dawn of human spaceflight in 1961, only three countries have developed vehicles capable of launching astronauts into space and returning them to Earth. Russia and the United States began launching humans into space in 1961. China's first manned spaceflight blasted off in 2003.

    You can follow SPACE.com Managing Editor Tariq Malik on Twitter @tariqjmalik. Follow SPACE.com for the latest in space science and exploration news on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.

     

    40 comments

    • michael  •  3 mths ago
      You folks are a sorry lot of Americans. Obuma is destroying our space efforts as fast as he can while the Chinese are poised to own the heavens. The moon, that useless hunk of rock to you folks and Obuma has trillions of dollars of fusion fuel waiting to be mined, fuel that would get us off fossil fuel and its pollution forever and you folks just do not seem to care.
    • Jack  •  3 mths ago
      Hmmm... just what the earth needs, more space junk...
      • TOTALLY SUPPORT GAY MARRI ... 3 mths ago
        US Evil Empire Existed 235 years, 235 years of genocide, lies, slaughter, wars, expansion, plundering, arson, sneaking around the world to committing crimes, and stealing Turkey from native american, and stealing OIL from middle east.
        America, the most evil nation in the history of humanity!
      • Paul 3 mths ago
        Must be from New Jersey...
      • Jack 3 mths ago
        Yeah I agree, New Jersey for sure.
    • George  •  3 mths ago
      Chinese quality?

      KABOOM!!!!!!
      • israel 3 mths ago
        the Chinese have a long history with bottle-rockets or did you mean kaboom from a personal point of view?
      • TOTALLY SUPPORT GAY MARRI ... 3 mths ago
        George, your mother will KABOOM !!!
    • wow  •  3 mths ago
      Are we scared off by Apollo, Challenger, Columbia? Why did we stop?
      • gar 3 mths ago
        Money, money, money, money - MONEY!
      • stillplayingpsolol 3 mths ago
        Because public relations is difficult to maintain when most of the country sees NASA as a failure, which is the opposite of what it really is. And since the government increased its size by 35% in the past 3-years, they have to take money from other agencies since the debt to GDP ratio is at around 104%.

        It's basically about being liked more politically, so the higher ups kick anyone down if they're not in the best of light in the public. Pretending for a moment here that NASA were a big money hole, but had amazing PR, they would get double, triple, maybe even quadruple the funding that they have now. Gotta hate politics sometimes.
      • TimT 3 mths ago
        Why fund a venture like NASA when 20 other ones are willing to do it on their own dime? I mean I'm sure there are a couple reasons, but getting it done commercially is a much more efficient way to do business. It does have terrible PR but some of that is well deserved due to projects being late or above cost, much like military R&D. NASA still has a budget, just leave the tech R&D to company's but make darn sure it's proper R&D before letting our trained astronauts on it.
    • Richard  •  3 mths ago
      Simply amazing...... China going to the Moon............And only a mere half century after the USA
      • Timur 3 mths ago
        How come US can't go to the space station except relying on Russian rockets?
      • Ca 3 mths ago
        Because of 2 reasons:1) MONEY!!!!!!!!!! If it costs more than fifty cents, the average American citizen (and subsequently, the government officials who rely on their votes to get into and stay in office) won't allow it.2) The average American doesn't give #$%$ one about space travel, and most are even hostile towards it, so our space program can only get crumbs (less than 1% off the national budget), while the private firms have to develop everything from scratch, again, with not a dime of funding.
      • Abdiel 3 mths ago
        Space exploration should be a combined effort of all the peoples of the earth. It is about time we stop our silly bickering and start working together toward a better future for all of mankind. We need to open our minds and rethink our goals.
    • George  •  3 mths ago
      still no chinese on the moon? Lol

      ❤NASA❤
      • Abdiel 3 mths ago
        Fact is, that we simply ran out of NAZI scientists... Operation Paper Clip got us to the moon, but now what....
    • wow  •  3 mths ago
      We have become too fat to be lifted off for space flights!?
    • Wildboyz  •  Toronto, Canada  •  3 mths ago
      Im guessing the Chinese Rocket-ships would fall apart during liftoff.
    • Paul  •  3 mths ago
      Hail Great China! doing stuff that has never been done before!
    • TimT  •  Raleigh, North Carolina  •  3 mths ago
      Good Job by China. Hopefully, all goes well for them and it'll get the creative juices and desire for competition going with the U.S commercial industry. China's success here will be a success for moving forward technologically as a society.
    • wow  •  3 mths ago
      We would rather spend the money to go to wars! Wars are more profitable for many I guess!
    • Wayne  •  3 mths ago
      I wonder if Walmart will be able to sell tickets for Chinese Space Flights soon.
    • Joe  •  3 mths ago
      It's nice to see China doing this but at the same time it saddens me to see we as a world don't work together to move out into space. There is no one country rich enough to do this endeavor alone. It would be nice if we could all come together in the name of humanity and try and establish bases on the moon and eventually Mars and other terrestrial planets/moons.

      Maybe one day we'll get our heads out of our rear ends and come together and realize we can do a lot more good working together then fighting amongst ourselves.
    • charlie74063  •  Oklahoma City, Oklahoma  •  3 mths ago
      He!! with the money we owe them they will be able to build a moon station, a mars station and colonize them.
    • Racindavid  •  Milwaukee, Wisconsin  •  3 mths ago
      In the mean time we can't even send an astronaut to the ISS WE funded.... How pathetic is that ? Thanks owebama... (don't start with the "Bush killed the shuttle" krap. He also funded the Orion to replace it.... owebama killed that....)
    • Proudchinese Wong  •  3 mths ago
      Demons are always jealous!
    • Proudchinese Wong  •  3 mths ago
      Proud to be Chinese! God loves China, evils and demons against God WILL.
    • JEFFRO  •  3 mths ago
      Let's see, how many wars is China in right now? That is enough money to go to Mars a couple of times and less people die.
    • The Voice of Reason  •  3 mths ago
      More space junk.
    • Anh  •  3 mths ago
      After 40 years: study, learn, meditate, ste.l, h.ck, c.py, ...high tech !
      Shenzhou resembles Russia's Soyuz Capsule !
      Finally, Chinese still follow the footprints of Russia's Cosmonauts and America's Astronauts more than 40 years ago !
      Next step, Chinese's Taikonauts try to land on the Earth's moon to pick up instruments, which were discarded by Russian and American more than 40 years ago !
      Then, these Taikonauts will bring those scraps to Jiuquan, Taiyuan, Xichang. Where, Chinese's scientists will study, meditate, research,...with the wastes of Russian and American more than 40 years ago !
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