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China will launch its second 'Heavenly Palace' space lab tomorrow
China's space program successfully completed its first round in a new phase of space exploration back in September 2011 when it launched the "Heavenly Palace" Tiangong-1 space laboratory. That was just the first stage in a plan to put a large-scale station up in orbit in the mid-2020s for extended astronaut missions rivaling those of the ISS. The next milestone will happen tomorrow when they launch Tiangong-2 into orbit, their second "Heavenly Palace" lab at 10:04 AM ET that will get a visit from a pair of Chinese taikonauts in four to six weeks.
China unveils space station, launching by 2020
China's been making its mark on the world for years, but there's still one massive piece of real estate where the country's citizens haven't hung their ubiquitous red flag: space. The China Manned Space Engineering Office hopes to change that within the next decade, however, unveiling a model of its first space station on Monday. The station's current moniker is Tiangong (Chinese for "heavenly palace") but the space agency is asking the public to suggest alternatives at kongjianzhan@vip.qq.com through July 25th. At 60 tons, the complete facility is significantly smaller than the 419-ton International Space Station, so residents should probably keep the man cave tidy in case Chinese astronauts need some room to stretch out while not connecting to the PlayStation Network. We're working on our own list of names for little Tiangong here, but feel free to share your submissions after the break.
