A trio of Chinese astronauts has
successfully docked with the Tiangong-1 space laboratory for what's expected to
be a total of 15 days in orbit — the longest mission to date for China's
burgeoning manned space program.
The published plan is for the
three-person crew, including Wang Yaping, China's second female spacefarer, to
practice docking maneuvers between their Shenzhou-10 capsule and theTiangong ("Heavenly
Palace"). The crew will also conduct medical exams and "carry out
youth-oriented science education activities during two space science
lectures" from orbit, according to
NASA. Wang is being billed as China's "first teacher in
space" and is scheduled to broadcast a
lecture on Earth physics.
The three astronauts aboard Shenzhou-10
are to be the last to visit Tiangong-1, which is running low on resources for
future crews. It will be replaced by Tiangong-2, set for launch sometime in the
next few years.
The Christian
Science Monitor reports:
"China is ultimately hoping to
build an international space station similar to Russia's Mir space station, a
seven-module station. Russia dumped that station in 2001, joining the
International Space Station project instead. ...
"Tiangong 1 will be converted
into a miles-high warehouse used while the proposed space station is undergoing
construction."
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