China's Heavenly Palace in the Orbit

China succeeded in docking process of the two spacecraft. One step toward building a space station.

Liu Yang became another success story of China to explore space. The woman of 33-year-old became China's first female astronaut to fly into space.

Artist illustration of the Shenzhou 9 docking with the Tiangong 1. (Picture from: http://orbiterchspacenews.blogspot.com/)

During the week, since June 16 last, she and two other astronaut, Jing Haipeng and Liu Wang, flying the spacecraft Shenzhou-9. At an altitude of 200 miles above the earth's surface, the plane was successfully attached to a vehicle and took Tiangong-1.

Screenshot from a video of the astronauts during the automatic docking of Shenzhou-9 with the Tiangong-1 space lab. (Picture from: http://www.siliconrepublic.com/)

The crew of the Shenzhou-9. (Picture from: http://www.wantchinatimes.com/)

"I believe in the principle that says that, if you persevere, you will succeed," said Liu Yang told Xinhua. Before it was recruited to be an astronaut in May 2010, she became a pilot of China's Air Force since 1997.

Igor Lisov, a researcher at the Russian Cosmonautics magazine explains, China made great strides with sending Liu. Therefore, the astronaut is not just a display, but a crew member who works. China, he said, wanted to show the principle of "gender equality" in the aerospace industry.

According Lisov, the success of Shenzhou-9 against the Tiangong-1 is one step towards the next stage. What is it? Create and manage a space station. "Now China paves the way for creating the orbital outpost," said Lisov.

Tiangong-1 spacecraft and Chinese Space Station. (Picture from: http://www.whatsonxiamen.com/)

Tiangong-1, which weighs 9.4 tons and was placed in orbit was launched in September last year. China explained that the module is not the space station, but only the laboratory. In November last year, the Shenzhou-8 without crew successfully docked to Tiangong-1. These activities are conducted via remote control from Earth.

Dr Morris Jones, an Australian aerospace analyst, called Tiangong-1 is worth mentioning a small space station. He was referring to photographs of the interior on this vehicle, equipped with various facilities to support the lives of astronauts.

He compared it with the Spacelab module belongs to the European Space Agency is merely a laboratory. From the picture, he judged that Tiangong-1 far more interesting than the old Spacelab.

The interior is very spacious and there are two berths for sleeping. Tiangong-1 is equipped with toilet facilities, sehuah independent communication system for the astronauts, sports equipment, and other facilities for the crew. "Tiangong-1 will be home to the crew of Shenzhou and provide all the basic necessities for life in space," said Jones.

Xinhua news agency did preach Shenzhou-9 will be docked to the space station module Tiangong-1 as part of China's efforts to build a permanent station in orbit. This effort is part of the "Heavenly Palace" China National Space Administration (CNSA) program.

China's space agency has sent eight astronauts into space. Tiangong-1 is scheduled to be orbited until 2013 followed the Shenzhou-9 mission, and one other manned missions. *** [UWD | SPACEDAILY | XINHUA | BBC | KORAN TEMPO 3922]

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