UPDATE 2: Chinese Space Station Module Set For Launch This Morning EDT
UPDATE 2: LIFTOFF!
UPDATE: Thanks to Alan Boyle for pointing us to China’s English language live coverage of the launch at http://english.cntv.cn/live/.
China’s Tiangong-1 (Heavenly Palace) experimental space station module is still set for launch this morning between 9:16 and 9:31 EDT (9:16-9:31 pm Beijing time).
Xinhua reports that the fleet of tracking ships are in their assigned locations to monitor the launch of the Long March IIF rocket.
The module is essentially a docking target for three Shenzhou spacecraft that will be launched over the next two years. The first two (Shenzhou 8 and 9) will be unoccupied, while the third will have at least one crew. Xinhua reported yesterday and today that Shenzhou 10 will carry a female Chinese astronaut (“taikonaut”), which would be a first for China.
China launched its first taikonaut in 2003 on Shenzhou 5 (the first four in the series were unoccupied test flights). In 2005, two taikonauts flew on Shenzhou 6, and in 2008, Shenzhou 7 carried three taikonauts, two of whom conducted China’s first spacewalk.
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