Source: Space.com
China is aggressively accelerating the pace of its manned space program by developing a 17,000 lb. man-tended military space laboratory planned for launch by late 2010. The mission will coincide with a halt in U.S. manned flight with phase-out of the shuttle.
The project is being led by the General Armaments Department of the People's Liberation Army, and gives the Chinese two separate station development programs.
Shenzhou 8, the first mission to the outpost in early 2011 will be flown unmanned to test robotic docking systems. Subsequent missions will be manned to utilize the new pressurized module capabilities of the Tiangong outpost.
Importantly, China is openly acknowledging that the new Tiangong outpost will involve military space operations and technology development.
Also the fact it has been given a No. 1 numerical designation indicates that China may build more than one such military space laboratory in the coming years.
"The People's Liberation Army's General Armament Department aims to finish systems for the Tiangong-1 mission this year," says an official Chinese government statement on the new project. Work on a ground prototype is nearly finished.
The People's Liberation Army think it can win a war from SPACE? The next time China wins a war against a foreign nation will be the first!
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1 comment:
There seem to be hanging models of fighter jets in the picture which bear a striking similarity to the late Avro Arrow.
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