Beijing to launch second space lab

China aims to have a permanent, manned space station in service by 2022. The latter is expected to dock with the Tiangong-2 to conduct experiments.

It will be visited by two astronauts launched aboard the Shenzhou-11 spacecraft in the fourth quarter of 2016.

China launched the first of a new generation of navigation satellites for its BeiDou navigation system in 2015.

Long March-7, scheduled to be launched in June, will put the country’s first cargo ship, Tianzhou-1, into space in the first half of 2017 to dock with Tiangong-2 and conduct experiments. “Its launch will greatly improve China’s capability in entering and returning from space”, a statement China’s space agency said.

The astronauts aboard Shenzhou 11 are to receive specialist training.

China has been barred from joining the International Space Station (ISS), now the world’s only operational space station, due to policy of the United States of America.

Construction of the orbiting space station will likely be completed by 2020, a spokesperson for the Asian superpower’s manned space program said. The multi-billion-dollar space project continues to increase national pride in China these recent years. Each lab will weigh about 20 tonnes.

Tiangong-1, the first space lab, launched in 2011 and has been visited by two manned missions, the Shenzhou 9 in 2012 and the Shenzhou 10 in 2013. The second space lab will be called Tiangong-2, meaning “Heavenly Palace-2” in Chinese.

The Tiangong 1 had been in service for four and a half years and was in good working condition, which enabled it to remain in orbit for continuing operations, the spokesperson said.

A spokesperson of the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp. said Chinese space scientists will explore key technologies during this period.

It didn’t send its first satellite into space until 1970 – 11 years after the US put the first man on the moon.