China fired-up about manned space station

BEIJING - China plans to launch two manned spacecraft next year to dock with its space module, Tiangong-1, which will itself lift off later in 2011, according to a spokesman for the China Manned Space Engineering Office.

The 8.5-ton Tiangong-1, or Heavenly Palace-1, is slated to blast off on top of a Long March 2F carrier rocket in the second half of this year, the spokesman said via a press release posted on the office's website late Wednesday.

The space module, which is now undergoing tests, will first be the target of an unmanned docking by the Shenzhou VIII spacecraft, which will be launched after Tiangong-1 later this year, he said.