China Launching Astronauts to Space Laboratory in March

China is on a space warpath, having managed to go from not having any space-faring capability to having a space station in mere years. Now the nation has announced that it will launching 3 astronauts to their newly minted space laboratory by August.

China has dreams of conquering space, and they haven’t been shy about it. They’ve been throwing money at the problem for years, but recently things have really been picking up. In the span of a year, China has demonstrated space docking and long-term atmospheric stability. They are moving at the pace we did during the space race, only they are racing uncontested.

The mission to the space laboratory will be only China’s 4th manned space flight. The mission will be launched from a Long March 2F rocket, China’s home-grown rocket ship.

China has had to develop all its own space technology from scratch, thanks to an embargo by the US, Europe and Russia. While western space missions tend to be an international affair, with each nation contributing technology and design, China has managed to start a program completely independent from all the other space faring nations.

China launched their first prototype space station module in September, 2011. This will be the first mission to it that will be manned. If this module is successful China hopes to start building an actual space station, made from many, many modules, by 2015.

It will be a small station, expected to be completed in 2020, but it will make China the third nation to ever build a multi-module space station. Further, it is expected to be completed the year that the International Space Station is retired.

Hopefully China’s space progress will kick off a second space race, with the United States as the other party.

SPACE Photo by : China Manned Space Engineering Office