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March 8, 2014 |
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Project 921-2 is the working name given by the People's Republic of China in 1992 for plans to create a manned space station. The project remained tentative throughout the 1990's while the PRC concentrated on the more modest goal of simply launching a Project 921-1|manned flight. In 1999 project 921-2 was finally given official authorization. A first design review was carried out that May and a year later the first model of the planned space station was unveiled at Expo 2000 in Hannover. The model reveals a relatively small station measuring 20 meters and weighing under 40 tonnes though unused docking ports indicate much room for expansion. In 2001 Chinese engineers described a three-step process toward the realization of Project 921-2. First, manned flight itself; this would successfully occur in 2003. Second, the orbiting of a space laboratory (a scaled back version of the initial model) that would only be manned on a short-term basis and left in an automated mode between visits. The third phase would involve the launch of a larger space laboratory, which would be permanently manned and be China's first true space station. The original target date for the fulfillment of the project was 2010. As of November 2005, there are plans to dock the unmanned Shenzhou 8 and Shenzhou 9 mission modules together to form a space lab. The Shenzhou 10 manned mission will dock and enter this space lab. It is unclear whether this is the temporary space lab described in 2001. There were also reports that a space station may be ready by 2012, which is probably the third-phase decribed in 2001. The fact that China has successfully launched a man in space under its own auspices and plans to do the same with a space station has generated enormous pride within the country but has caused some consternation elsewhere. China is the most notable absentee from the International Space Station, reflecting both American unease at allowing an authoritarian country aboard and China's pride in self-sufficiency. This has led to conjecture that China will be a competitor rather than a partner in future international space ventures. However, China has recently reached out to Russia, the ESA, and Canada, to carry out cooperative space initiatives. So it is likely only China and the US will rule out direct cooperation.
Category:Space stations Category:Chinese space program This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Project 921-2".
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