China launched its longest-ever space mission on Tuesday, marking another milestone on its path towards developing its own space station.
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Shenzhou-X lifted off at 5.38pm from the space center near the northwestern town of Jiuquan with three astronauts on board. They will stay in space for 15 days, the China Manned Space Engineering Office said.
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Wu Peng, the programme’s spokeswoman, was quoted by state media as saying the mission marked the first service flight in the programme. Earlier flights had focused on testing equipment. This indicated that China had acquired most of the essential technology for starting construction of its space station next year.
Beijing aims to have its own space station and send a human to the moon by 2020, the year the International Space Station is scheduled to retire. That would leave China as the only nation with such a presence in space. China is not part of the ISS – a project jointly backed by the US, the EU, Russia, Japan and Canada – mainly because of US opposition.
Tuesday’s launch, China’s fifth manned mission, comes just 10 years after China sent a human into space, in a reminder of the country’s rapid progress in space technology.
Although its space programme trails the US and Russia by 40 years, it uses newer technology and is progressing faster. Shenzhou-X brings the number of Chinese sent into space to 11.
Given China’s rise to global power status and its rapid military expansion in recent years, observers in the west fret about potential military applications of its space programme .
While Beijing has refused to give much detail about the space programme, it is controlled by the military and indications are that China, like other countries, uses the technology for both military and civilian purposes.
For example, defence analysts believe that China’s increasing number of satellites helps the People’s Liberation Army in improving tracking and targeting systems for its missile forces. But at the same time, small, cheap satellites have become a booming export business for Beijing.
Among the three astronauts manning Shenzhou-X is Wang Yaping, the second woman and the youngest-ever astronaut China has sent into space. The 33-year-old air force transport pilot who holds the military rank of major will teach Chinese primary and middle school students about space in a session transferred via video
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Maj Wang’s lesson will help the children better understand physics principles such as Newton’s laws, and is intended to foster students’ interest in space and science in general, Ms Wu said.
The three astronauts are to perform one manual and one automatic docking with Tiangong I, the space module China sent into orbit in 2011, enter the module and conduct scientific experiments, repeating similar exercises performed last year. But they will also do some maintenance and repair work, a task mirroring that of similar missions to ISS.
After the return of Shenzhou-X, Tiangong I will end its two-year mission and engineers from China Manned Space Engineering Office will start focusing on preparations for the launch of Tiangong II, the full-fledged space station. The station is expected to be less than one-fifth the size of ISS, with a weight of about 60 tonnes.
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