China’s unmanned spacecraft to dock with orbiting module

Beijing: China announced it will launch an unmanned spacecraft early next month that will attempt to dock with an experimental space station module already in orbit. The Shenzhou 8 mission is the latest step in what will be a decade-long effort to place a manned permanent space station in orbit.

According to a Xinhua report, the Shenzhou 8 will carry out a series of manoeuvres to couple with the Tiangong 1 module that was launched late last month.

According to launch centre's chief engineer, Lu Jinrong, the module has been functioning as expected.

The modified Long March-2F rocket that will orbit the Shenzhou 8 were transferred early on Wednesday to the launch pad at the Jiuquan space base on the edge of the Gobi desert in northern China.