Unmanned cargo spacecraft completes first stage of historic mission with successful satellite-guided coupling to orbiting laboratory
China’s first cargo spacecraft docked successfully with the Tiangong-2 space lab on Saturday, the official Xinhua news agency reported, marking a major step towards Beijing’s goal of establishing a permanently manned space station by 2022. President Xi Jinping has prioritised advancing China’s space programme to strengthen national security. The Tianzhou-1 cargo resupply spacecraft made the automated docking process with the orbiting space lab after it had taken off on Thursday evening from the Wenchang Satellite Launch Centre in the southern island province of Hainan. Professor He Qisong, a space security expert from Shanghai Normal University, said that successful docking is an important step in the future plan to send astronauts into space station by 2022. “The Tianzhou-1 cargo resupply spacecraft is to deliver goods, but that is only the first step, ” He said, “in the future we are going to send astronauts, and that is our final goal.” Another breakthrough is the use of tracking and data relay satellite to track the movement of spacecraft, according to Zhu Ke, a deputy director from China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation who is in charge of measurement, control and communication of Tianzhou-1 cargo resupply spacecraft, CCTV reported. In the past such monitoring was carried out by controlling stations on the earth or monitoring ships on the ocean, which cost a lot of money and manpower to build and maintain monitor facilities, according to Xu Xiaoping, the deputy chief designer of the cargo spacecraft, CCTV said.
