China wants to build its own space station in orbit by 2020

Absent from the International Space Station project (ISS), China wants to build its own space station in orbit by 2020. Chinese capsule Shenzhou X, the three astronauts on board, including a woman, connected Wednesday Tiangong-1 space lab orbiting Earth.
This maneuver successfully held two days after the launch of Shenzhou capsule X, using a Long March 2F rocket from the Gobi Desert.
Chinese astronauts plan to spend nearly two weeks on board the space laboratory, the longest in the history of China's space missions.
During this mission, astronaut Wang Yaping, the two Chinese into space, will deliver a course of Tiangong-1 space lab, a student group on Earth.
Xinhua News Agency announced that the automated procedure X Shenzhou capsule docking with Tiangong-1 orbital module was successfully completed on Wednesday at 05.18 GMT.
The Fifth Chinese manned space mission on board, called "Shenzhou-10" represents the latest step in China's space program intends to build its own space station by the end of this decade.
Module Tiangong-1 was launched into space and demonstration. It was launched in 2011 to serve as a "target" for Chinese astronauts who want to practice maneuvering space connection.
Three Chinese astronauts will practice manual docking during their stay on board module Tiangong-1, Shenzhou-X capsule disengaging laboratory and then reconnecting it to him. The maneuvers will be supervised by the mission commander, astronaut Nie Haisheng.
China is developing an ambitious space program that includes the goal of placing a vehicle for exploring the Moon in the second half of 2013. China sent its first astronaut into space in 2003 and the first woman astronaut, Liu Yang, in June 2012.

Tiangong-1 (Chinese: 天宫一号; pinyin: Tiāngōng yīhào; literally "Heavenly Palace 1") is China's first space station,an experimental testbed to demonstrate orbital rendezvous and docking capabilities.Launched unmanned aboard a Long March 2F/G rocket on 29 September 2011,it is the first operational component of the Tiangong program, which aims to place a larger, modular station into orbit by 2020.Tiangong-1 will be deorbited in 2013,and replaced over the following decade by the larger Tiangong-2 and Tiangong-3 modules.
Tiangong-1 will be visited by a series of Shenzhou spacecraft during its two-year operational lifetime. The first of these, the unmanned Shenzhou 8, successfully docked with the module in November 2011,while the manned Shenzhou 9 mission docked in June 2012.A third and final mission to Tiangong-1, the manned Shenzhou 10, docked in June 2013.


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