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 Post subject: Chinese space station!
PostPosted: Sun Nov 13, 2011 12:57 pm 
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The Chinese space agency launched an experimental mini-space station recently, called Tiangong-1. They developed this because they weren't allowed to join the ISS consortium. Well, a little competition never hurt anybody...

Now they are practising docking between space station modules. Here's a report from the Chinese news agency:

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/v ... 235132.htm


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PostPosted: Wed Nov 23, 2011 10:32 am 
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Good luck to them! Apart from this being much smaller than the ISS, do you know if there are any major differences in approach between the ISS and the Chinese space station? Have the Chinese space agency said how they plan to develop this in the future?


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PostPosted: Mon Apr 02, 2012 10:29 pm 
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Another mini space initiative! It reminds me of another thread I read here just now, by somebody who wants to build micro-spacecraft to explore the asteroid belt.

Trust me, the gerbils are going to inherit the cosmos, because they'll be the only mammals small enough to get aboard the spaceships!


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PostPosted: Mon Apr 02, 2012 10:31 pm 
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p.s. this was the thread I meant:

viewtopic.php?f=12&t=1344


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PostPosted: Sun Jun 24, 2012 2:29 pm 
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As you may have already seen from the media (and links on the Space Age Facebook page) the Chinese space agency has launched its first crewed mission to Tiangong-1.

The crew of 3 on the Shenzhou 9 spacecraft includes China's first female astronaut, Liu Yang.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/ju ... sfeed=true

One of the main points of the mission was to try to dock the spacecraft with Tiangong-1. This was successfully accomplished about 12 hours ago:

http://news.sky.com/home/technology/article/16252399

This is a big deal for China's space efforts, and the docking was shown live on national television.

http://www.facebook.com/SpaceAgeMagazine
https://twitter.com/#!/Space_Age_mag


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PostPosted: Sun Nov 10, 2013 12:24 pm 
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And now the Indians are getting really ambitious in space too. Did you see the coverage of their Mars probe? I read an article (can't remember where - the Economist?) about the prospects of a new space race, only this time between China and India!


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PostPosted: Wed Apr 29, 2015 12:53 pm 
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Tiangong-1 was never meant to be a long-term space station, or so they say. It is still up there at the moment. It is supposed to be replaced by Tiangong-2 which is now due to launch next year (2016) though that date has been put back a couple of times.


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PostPosted: Sat May 02, 2015 5:54 pm 
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Any idea what kind of scientific programme they are running? Or is the main point to give them experience and the capacity to conduct future space operations?

I suppose I'm asking, what is the purpose of their space station programme, from the Chinese government's point of view?


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