China space lab launch fixed for late Thursday

Sep 28, 2011, 8:49 GMT

Beijing - China on Wednesday announced a narrow window late Thursday for the launch of its Tiangong-1 space capsule, which is designed to form the nation's first miniature space laboratory and test systems to be used in a permanent space station.

Engineers injected fuel into the Long March-2F carrier rocket on Wednesday in final preparation for a planned launch of Tiangong-1 between 9:16 pm and 9:31 pm (1316 to 1331 GMT) on Thursday, said Wu Ping, a spokesman for the China Manned Space Engineering Office.

The main aim of the Tiangong-1, or Palace of Heaven, mission was to test docking and other technology to be used in a future space station, Wu said in a statement issued from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in north-western China's Gansu province.

Scientists conducted a full ground simulation on the module and the carrier rocket on Sunday.

Engineers at Jiuquan were also making final preparations to launch the unmanned Shenzhou-8, or Magic Ship, space capsule which is scheduled to perform the first docking manoeuvre with Tiangong-1 in early November, the launch centre reported earlier.

The carrier rocket for Shenzhou-8 arrived at the launch centre on Sunday, it said.

Astronauts are scheduled to visit Tiangong-1 twice next year on the Shenzhou-9 and Shenzhou-10 missions, which will set up a mini-space station consisting of linked capsules.

In 2003, China became only the third nation to send an astronaut into orbit, after Russia and the United States.

It conducted its first spacewalk in 2008 and has an ambitious space programme that includes plans for an unmanned lunar landing.

The scheduled launch of Tiangong-1 in August was delayed following the failure of another carrier rocket in Long March family to send an experimental satellite into orbit.