China successfully completed the first step of building a space station when Shenzhou 8 docked with lab module Tiangong 1 on Nov. 3, 2011, but what is the significance of the project for the nation?
It is generally recognized among the international space exploration community that a space station can provide a platform to conduct scientific research that cannot be performed on the earth and create a relatively stable environment featuring microgravity and high vacuum, which is of strategic significance to the development of material science, biology, pharmacology and other branches of science.
Furthermore, a space station orbiting Earth is crucially important to the development of geosciences and to the exploration of outer space.
"China's planned space station will also be open to foreign scientists in order to promote global scientific progress and to push human civilization forward," said Zhou Jianping, chief designer of China's manned space project.
To read more, click here.