MSNBC:
The
Tiangong 1, or "Heavenly Palace," is an eight-ton
unmanned space lab that will function as a test bed for China's
developing space technologies. The main task of the lab will be
to experiment with rendezvous and docking between spacecraft;
it's scheduled to rendezvous and dock with an unmanned
Shenzhou 8 spacecraft a few weeks after launch.
China's space program has been compared, in its level of
technological development, to that of NASA's Gemini program,
which launched 10 manned flights between 1965 and 1966.
Tiangong 1 will launch from a site in the Gobi Desert
around September 27–30.
