International space exploration efforts have been having a rough couple of weeks.
Just as NASA and the Russian Space Agency are considering temporarily abandoning the International Space Station in November following the crash of an unmanned Russian Soyuz cargo supply vehicle last week, Thursday brought the news that China too is delaying the launch of the prototype module of its own planned space station in the wake of the crash of a separate Chinese rocket that occurred in mid-August.The Tiangong-1 (“Heavenly Palace-1” in English) is an 8.5-ton unmanned space module developed by the China National Space Administration (CNSA) for the purpose of testing docking procedures in orbit that will be used to connect subsequent, manned modules to form China’s first planned space station by 2020.
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://talkingpointsmemo.com/?p=107722