Encouraged by yesterday morning's historic rendezvous and docking of the Shenzhou VIII spacecraft, Chinese authorities said construction of a space station will begin as soon as 2013.
'We will do two more rendezvous and docking flights next year,' said Wu Ping, spokeswoman for the manned space programme, at a press conference in Beijing yesterday. 'After that, we will begin the construction of a space laboratory and space station.'
The space laboratory is expected to be up and running by 2016. If its architecture and equipment proves effective and reliable, the facility will grow into a full-scale space station by 2020, she said.
The construction will require more than 20 space flights using China's new heavy-lift launch vehicles, including LM-5 series rockets. Based on an average cost of five billion yuan (HK$6.10 billion) per flight, the ambitious project will require an investment of more than 100 billion yuan, according to space authorities.
It is the most detailed and assured official timeline of China's manned space programme, signifying growing confidence among authorities after the Shenzhou VIII docked with the Tiangong-1 space laboratory module shortly after 1am yesterday. Dr Morris Jones, a space analyst based in Australia, said the docking was vital for the future of China's manned-spaceflight programme, as a large space station cannot be constructed or maintained without repeated rendezvous and dockings.
'The docking was very smooth, but so was the launch,' he said. 'This suggests that the technology and manufacturing of China's space hardware is improving.'