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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 launches its new mainstay rocket
China is celebrating the successful launch of its Long March 7 rocket, a key component and backbone of its future space program. As Xinhua News explains, the craft is designed as the "main carrier" for the Chinese space program, capable of pushing 13.5 tons of gear towards the heavens. SpaceFlightNow reports that the rocket carried a miniature version of China's forthcoming crew capsule, which is currently being tested. Other craft on the launch included an experimental satellite tasked with cleaning up space junk and a device to measure the Earth's gravitational field.
