Leonard David's INSIDE OUTER SPACE

China’s Tiangong-2 space lab undergoing checkout for September liftoff.
Credit: CCTV via China Spaceflight

It is an important year for China’s burgeoning human spaceflight program.

Chinese news agencies report that the country’s second orbiting space lab –Tiangong-2 — has been delivered over the weekend from Beijing by rail to the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center.

According to a statement from China’s manned space engineering office, the vessel will undergo assembling and testing processes at the center, preparatory work for its mid-September launch.

China’s Shenzhou-11 piloted spacecraft being readied for launch later this year.
Credit: CCTV via China Spaceflight

As the second orbiting space lab for China, Tiangong-2 is to be visited by two astronauts onboard their Shenzhou-11 spacecraft.

Early next year, a Long March 7 will loft a Tianzhou supply ship to the Tiangong-2 space lab.

Also on tap this year is the maiden blastoff of China’s Long March 5. This booster is scripted to hurl into Earth orbit space station modules, as well as support robotic lunar sample return from the Moon, and toss a rover to Mars in 2020.

Check out these two videos on preparations of the Long March 2 F booster and Tiangong-2 for the upcoming launch:

http://www.cctvplus.com/news/20160710/8026553.shtml

http://www.cctvplus.com/news/20160711/8026573.shtml

Maiden flight last month of Long March 7 departing Wenchang coastal spaceport.
Credit: New China

Test capsule

Late last month, the first Long March 7 rocketed from the country’s new Kennedy Space Center-like Wenchang coastal spaceport.

The Long March 7 carried mini-satellites, as well as a sub-scale test capsule for future piloted space missions in low Earth orbit and deep space. That 2.6 metric ton (2,600 kilograms) reentry module parachuted to a landing in Badain Jaran Desert in north China.

Credit: js7tv.cn

Prior to the capsule’s landing, the reentry module spent about 20 hours in orbit.

Credit: js7tv.cn