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Summary China held a rally Friday to celebrate the success of its first mission of space docking.
President Hu Jintao, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, and members of the Standing Committee of the CPC Central Committee Political Bureau, attended the meeting.Launched from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center on Nov. 1, Shenzhou-8 first rendezvoused and docked with the target orbiter Tiangong-1 two days later. The two joint vessels then orbited earth for 12 days and conducted another docking after disengagement on Nov. 14.Tiangong-1, which blasted off from the same launch site on Sept. 29, will remain in orbit to await docking attempts of both Shenzhou-9 and Shenzhou-10 in 2012. At least one of the two space vessels will take astronautsThe safe return of Shenzhou-8 to Earth on November 17 marked the end of the 49-day space docking mission, which will pave the way for Chinas establishment of a manned space station around 2020.China initiated its three-phase manned program in 1992. During the first phase, astronaut Yang Liwei became the first of the nation in 2003 to be in space on Shenzhou-5.After Chinese astronauts made successful extravehicular activities during the Shenzhou-7 mission in 2008, China started the second phase of the space program: space docking.After the planned Shenzhou-9 and Shenzhou-10 missions both in 2012, China will build a space lab around 2016, which will mark the end of the second phase.In the third stage, China plans to develop and launch multiple space modules, with a goal of assembling a 60-tonne space station in around 2020. Chinese astronauts will operate more space research projects.
