China to launch 2nd ambitious spacelab

In two years, China will launch its second orbiting space laboratory, the latest step in an ambitious space program Beijing says will one day land a Chinese man on the moon. Astronaut Yang Liwei, who in 2003 became China’s first man in space and is now deputy director of the country’s manned space program, made the announcement at the Association of Space Explorers (ASE) congress in Beijing. It is the first time China has hosted the annual meeting, which has drawn nearly 100 astronauts from 18 countries to Beijing, in a marker of the country’s scientific progress. Beijing sees its multi-billion-dollar space program as a symbol of its rise and the Communist Party’s success in turning around the fortunes of the once poverty-stricken nation.

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