China to complete space docking

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18 juni 2012 | A group of three Chinese astronauts were successfully launched into space. Their mission is part of China’s ambition of creating a permanent space station. ScienceGuide interviewed Yang Hong, chief designer of the space station “Heavenly Palance-1” who argues that China’s progress will benefit all humanity.

On Saturday at 12:37 hours (MET) China successfully launched itsspace shuttle “Shenzhou 9″. Three astronauts, among them for thefirst time a woman, will manually dock with the space module”Heavenly Palace-1”. This maneuver is scheduled for Monday andrepresents another step towards China’s ambition to establish apermanent space station.

“I am grateful to the motherland and the people. I feel honoredto fly into space on behalf of hundreds of millions of Chinesefemales,” the female astronaut Liu Yang commented before themission began according to the state news agency Xinhua.

ScienceGuide interviewed Yang Hong, the chief designer ofthe “Heavenly Palace”.”My ultimate dream is to let manned spaceflight benefit all humanity. Not just our Chinese people, but allcitizens in the world. I think that flying to Mars is just onestep. In fact, we should think much beyond that,” he said.