China to combine four ships to form space station
Manga mechanisms made real
Posted in Space, 18th September 2008 09:13 GMT
Increase your knowledge of the latest threats to your busines
The Director of Jiuquan Launch Center claims that China is set to build a space station by snapping together four spaceships (Shenzhou 7, 8, 9, and 10), to be launched sequentially, according to a report by Hong Kong newspaper the Ming Pao Daily News.
Though other reports indicate that taikonauts aboard Shenzhou 7 will return to Earth on September 28, the official source claimed the ship will remain in the orbit to be docked with unmanned Shenzhou 8 and 9.
Finally, the manned spaceship Shenzhou 10 will be launched and dock with the other three, completing the space station.

...I'm sure the Japanese have already toyed with this idea
The state media has revealed the identities of China's first spacewalker and his two crewmates set to reach orbit in the Shenzhou 7 mission. Air force fighter pilot Zhai Zhigang, 42, will be the first countryman to go EVA with crewmates Liu Boming and Jing Haipeng. ®
Increase your knowledge of the latest threats to your busines


The future of SaaS and IT infrastructure management
Solving on-premise email challenges with on-demand services
The business case for application security
Reducing messaging and web security costs with managed services

Win a Samsung C6625!
Is your cameraphone an oxymoron?
Reg Mobile and Wireless newsletter is go! go! go!
Sign up, sign up for The Register IT security newsletter