China is planning to launch in 2011 a spacecraft equipped with two docking ports to serve as a basis for the country's future space station, the Xinhua news agency said on Wednesday.
The 8.5-ton Tiangong-1 spacecraft will be put into orbit by a modified CZ-2F/G carrier rocket and will mark the first stage of China's three-stage Project 921 human spaceflight program.
The launch will most likely be carried out from the new Wenchang space center on Hainan Island.
Xinhua cited Qi Faren, former chief designer of China's Shenzhou spaceships, as saying that the country planned to launch the unmanned Shenzhou-8, and the manned Shenzhou-9 and Shenzhou-10 spacecraft within two years to dock with Tiangong-1, which will be later used as a space laboratory module.
According to Chinese space officials, Tiangong-1 is designed to provide a "safe room" for Chinese astronauts to live in and conduct scientific research in zero gravity.
The Tiangong-1 design will also be used to develop a cargo spacecraft, which will be fitted with a docking port and used for resupplying the future space station.
MOSCOW, March 3 (RIA Novosti)
