China Says Plans To Master Space Docking

Docking two craft in space is a skill needed to run orbiting stations and send vehicles to the moon.

China aims to dock two craft in outer space by as early as 2011, a government spokesman told Xinhua news agency on Saturday, part of its plans to secure its footing in space.

Docking two craft in space is a skill needed to run orbiting stations and send vehicles to the moon.

China hopes to launch an unmanned craft by the end of 2010 that will lock into place with the Shenzhou VIII, another unmanned craft, scheduled to be launched in 2011, the official news agency reported, citing an unnamed space official.

China aims to win a position as a major space power alongside the United States and Russia. The three are the only nations able to put people into space using their own rockets.

The 8.5-tonne Tiangong I module to dock with the Shenzhou VIII would be unmanned for the docking but designed to later allow "Chinese astronauts to live and conduct scientific research in zero gravity", Xinhua said.

The module would be "able to perform long-term unattended operation, which will be an essential step toward building a space station," it said. A prototype is almost ready.

Despite the economic slowdown sapping government revenues, China appears determined to press its venture into space.

In October 2003, China became the third country to put a man in space with its own rocket.

It sent two more astronauts on a five-day flight on its Shenzhou VI craft in October 2005, and launched its third manned space mission last September, when one of the astronauts carried out the country's first space walk.

Its first lunar probe, the Chang'e-1 satellite, finished its mission in October after orbiting the moon thousands of times.

China will open competitive bidding so domestic institutions can help build crucial parts of the moon exploration craft, an official newspaper said this week.