Dragon in Space

Chinese Tiangong 1 Space Lab Launch Delayed

A spoke person of the Chinese Human Spaceflight Programme finally confirmed on 1 September that the launch schedule for the Tiangong 1 Space Lab “had been adjusted”. He emphasized that the preparation work for China’s first rendezvous docking operation was still progressing smoothly, and that Shenzhou 8 spacecraft had arrived at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre by air on 26 August as scheduled. However, following the unsuccessful launch of the Shijian 11 #04 in mid-August, the mission headquarters had decided to postpone the launch of Tiangong 1 in order to give more time for engineers to investigate the reasons of the failure.

Tiangong 1 arrived at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in early July, followed by its Changzheng 2F launch vehicle in mid-July. Both the spacecraft and the launcher have been undergoing pre-launch checkouts since then. The launch was reportedly scheduled in late August or early September, so that Shenzhou 8 could be launched in November to perform the unmanned rendezvous docking.

On 18 August, a Changzheng 2C rocket launched from the same launch site failed to place its payload Shijian 11 #04 into the orbit. Both the Changzheng 2C and Changzheng 2F belong to the same family of launch vehicles designed by CALT (The First Academy). As a precautious measure, the Tiangong 1 mission control decided to postpone the launch until engineers are confident that the Changzheng 2F launcher will not be affected by any potential flaws on the Changzheng 2C.


Rumours began to speculate in late August that the Tiangong 1 launch schedule may have been affected by the Shijian failure. Some even suggested that the launch could be delayed until late October. However, there has been no report yet indicating that the launch campaign had stopped or technical staffs been withdrawn from the launch site, suggesting that the delay of the launch could be only few weeks rather than months.

Source: Posted on 1 September 2011 by DX / Posted in: Human Spaceflight, Space Lab

Photo: http://sinodefence.wordpress.com

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(1.09.2011)