China will launch a core module¹ belonging to its first space station around 2018, according to a senior engineer with China Aerospace² Science and Technology Corp. on Thursday.

 

中国航天科技集团公司一位高级工程师周四表示，中国将于2018年前后发射其首个太空站的核心模块。
 

 

Two space labs will be launched later and dock with the core module, "Tianhe-1," said Wang Zhongyang, spokesperson with a key research institute attached to the corporation.

 

Construction on the space station is expected to finish around 2022, Wang said.

 

The space station is expected to consist of the core module, and the two attached labs, each weighing about 20 tonnes.

 

If the International Space Station, which has extended its service, is retired³ by 2024, China's new space station will be the only operational one in outer space, Wang said.

 

According to Wang, the next few years will see some exciting advances in the space station program. This year, China will launch the second orbiting space lab Tiangong-2 into space and Shenzhou-11 spacecraft, which will carry two astronauts and dock with Tiangong-2.

 

In 2017, the country's first cargo⁴ ship Tianzhou-1, which literally⁵ means "heavenly vessel," will be sent to dock with Tiangong-2 and test some of the important systems.

 

After the space station is in operation, the country also plans to launch a space telescope similar to the Hubble Space Telescope, which will be on a separate space unit and share orbit alongside the space station, Wang said.

点击收听单词发音