It retires, but the journey continues

ACCORDING TO AN OFFICIAL press release, China's Tiangong II space lab will reenter Earth's atmosphere on Friday, which marks its official retirement. China Daily writer Zhang Zhouxiang comments:

Tiangong II is being retired from service. However, China's age of space exploration has just begun. Construction of its space station, based on the efforts of generations of scientists and engineers, is still going on with the first module due to be launched some time next year.

The launch of China's Tiangong I and Tiangong II space labs shows that China is closing the gap with the US and Russia in terms of space technology. The technology of space station is so advanced that only the US and Russia can boast of owning the comprehensive technology of manufacturing, launching, and operating space stations. In comparison, Japan, Canada and the European Union only have part of the technology and they mainly co-work with the US on space programs.