China to launch its second manned space mission next year

Beijing: Bracing to launch a major space module on Tuesday, to experiment with the first docking system of its space station to catch up with US and Russia, China today said it would launch its second manned space mission next year. China will conduct another manned space mission by 2012, Wu Ping, spokesperson of the China manned space program told media at the Jiuquan satellite launch centre located in Gobi desert. China plans to launch in 2012 spaceships Shenzhou-9 and Shenzhou-10, which are expected to dock with China’s first space lab module. Tiangong-1, (Heavenly Palace) launched last month. [caption id=“attachment_119435” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“China said it will launch its second manned space mission next year. Getty Images”]  [/caption] Wu said Shenzhou-8, the unmanned test module would be launched early morning tomorrow to dock with Tiangong-1. “At least one mission of the two (Shenzhou-9 and Shenzhou-10) will be manned,” Wu said. The crew members have already been selected for the possible space docking mission in 2012 and are being trained for manual docking skills, Wu said. Before the manned flight, China has to test the know how on space docking by launching the unmanned Shenzhou-8 tomorrow and connecting it with the target orbiter Tiangong-1. She said the maneuver to connect the two modules could be risky and fraught with dangers. “It is fairly difficult and risky to link up two vehicles travelling at high speeds in orbit, with a margin of error of no more than 20 centimetres,” Wu said. There were incidents of collisions between space vehicles in the early days of docking attempts, and recent docking missions involving the International Space Station did not always run smoothly, Wu said. PTI